Osama.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." -Martin Luther King, Jr

This is a quote that has been showing up everywhere over the last few days...it is a quote I will forever stand by and fully believe in.  So with this quote in mind...please feel free to read on.  But do keep in mind whlie reading that this is simply my opinion ...my thoughts and my beliefs.

So it was on Sunday night that Peter informed me that Osama bin Laden had been killed. Peter then went in search of all sorts of videos and what not stating the same thing. reaffirming what he already knew. I checked out facebook and sure enough nearly 99.9% of the satus updates revolved around the death of Osama.

I didn't have much to say about the matter and continued my facebook stalking. However, my husband was a little distraught by my lack of interest in the matter. He said ...you are an american and this is a historical day for americans. And I just looked at him with blank eyes, shrugged my shoulders, and carried on.

Terrible I know right?? I mean I am a pretty passionate person so you would think I would have some emotional response to his death right? Well I did...it's just that the emotions it evoked were not emotions of joy or excitement, but rather emotions of anger, rage, and skepticism.

But instead of speaking to Peter about it...I remained silent - at least for the time being. And I decided I would sleep on it, but even after hours of sleep I still woke up irate - irate at the entire situation, irate at the joy demonstrated, irate at the loss of so much life!  And I was still skeptical of it all.

I mean I majored in political science in college and some of my favorite classes were those political media ones where I was informed about the hold and the control the government has over the media, especially during times of war.  I know that the government has the capacity to filter ALOT of things - so of course I went there with the skepticism. I mean I was asking Peter questions such as...Is Osama REALLY dead? How do we know it's really true? Or is this just another lie they are feeding us to bolster Obama's ratings? Or to increase our hope in our government and our country?

My husband kindly replied by saying...They have the body!  What more do you want?...and I of course went on to say...well how do we know they have the body?  We havn't seen any pictures of it!  So, yes, on Sunday night I was a little skeptical, and the truth is I will always be skeptical of our media...or our politics.   I will always second guess the things that come out of politician's mouths, especially those who have something to gain from our ignorance or our lack of knowledge.
But this post isn't about my skepticism - this post is about decency and the loss of life.  I mean truly what has the death of Osama actually achieved??? anything?  and if you answer justice...I beg the question.. was justice really served??  Will justice ever be served on this side of the Kingdom? 

I had a hard time reading all the facebook posts of jubilee, excitement, and celebration over the death of a man. People died on Tuesday and others are celebrating it. It just seems wrong doesn't it?  I have so many thoughts and feelings about it all...but instead of trying to put them all into my own words, I figured I would steal the words of others.  I found these thoughts on blogs and facebook notes and they express my own emotions and feelings so beautifully - so why would I bother rewriting them when someone else has done it so well.

So I wanted to start off with the Huffington Post article by Pamela Gerloff, The Pscyhology of Revenge:  Why we should Stop Celebrating Osama bin Laden's death.

Here are a few quotes from there that I love...but I would definitely recommend reading the whole thing if you have the chance!

"Celebrating" the killing of any member of our species -- for example, by chanting "USA! USA!" and singing "The Star Spangled Banner" outside the White House or jubilantly demonstrating in the streets -- is a violation of human dignity. Regardless of the perceived degree of "good" or "evil" in any of us, we are all, each of us, human. To celebrate the killing of a life, any life, is a failure to honor life's inherent sanctity.

Plenty of people will argue that Osama bin Laden did not respect the sanctity of others' lives. But I say, "So what?" One aspect of being human is our ability to choose our own behavior; more specifically, our capacity to return good for evil, love for hate, dignity for indignity. While some consider Osama bin Laden to have been the personification of evil, he was nonetheless a human being. A more appropriate response to his killing would be to mourn the many tragedies that led up to his violent death, as well as the violent deaths of thousands in the attempt to eliminate him from the face of the Earth; to feel compassion for anyone who, because of their role in the military or government, American or otherwise, has had to play any role in killing another.

It is hard not to think that some of the impulse to celebrate "justice being done" may also contain a certain pleasure in revenge -- not just "closure" but "getting even." The world is not safer with Osama bin Laden's violent demise (threat levels are going up, not down), so no cause for celebration there; evil has not been finally removed from the Earth, so no reason for jubilation on that count. The War on Terror goes on, so there is no closure in that regard. The truth is that "celebrating justice" when one person is killed -- as happens regularly in the gang wars of American cities -- only incites further desire for revenge, which, from "the other side's" viewpoint, is usually called "justice."

And another one…this one was from a facebook note.

I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

I want to spend some time considering a graceful response to the killing of Bin Laden. I feel sorrow at the memory of 911, sorrow for the countless lives lost between then and now in Iraq and Afghanistan, and all over the world in the many terrorist attacks of the last several years. But I also feel sorrow in reading the graceless expressions of glee and jubilation that have been posted on Facebook. While Bin Laden was a truly evil man, bent on destruction and perhaps needed to die that innocent lives might be spared, I still feel such sorrow at the whole mess.

Some have even even insinuated that Jesus Christ himself might be happy at the thought of Bin Laden's killing. I see nothing in the scriptures to support such a notion. Such expressions are closer to the rantings of radical Islamists than they are to the heart and character of Christ as depicted in the Bible.

Without doubt, a great evil has been eliminated, but at such a great cost. I feel sorrow for the evil, sorrow for the cost that needed to be paid; blood spilled by soldiers and civilians in 9 years of war. While I didn't know anyone who died on 911, I have been well aquainted with many who have died in the war on terror during these long, intervening years. I don't feel good that Bin Laden is dead, but rather feel sorrow that his death seemed so necessary and sorrow that his life wrought such great destruction.

May God bless us all, not just Americans, but all of us who occupy this spinning globe. May His peace reign in the hearts and minds of all men and women so that the temptation to react with glee at the violent death of an enemy need not pervaid our thoughts. May we learn to exercise the courage of compassion and pride ourselves in the humilty of service.

And another one...this is from a blog post.

Tonight, after having a wonderful dinner with friends, I opened my laptop, logged into facebook and was met with countless messages proclaiming the death of Osama Bin Laden. These were not merely messages of fact, but rather messages of glee and excitement. After the shock of the news wore off, I thought to myself, “Really?” I remember after the horrible tragedy of 9/11 our country was overcome with patriotic sentiment. Although I too was “proud to be an American,” and was devastated at the thousands of lives lost on that day, I remember thinking how unfortunate it was that it took an act so atrocious for our country to come together in solidarity and unity. Today, I am confronted with this same idea. Usually divided by political differences or economic frustrations, why does it take a tragedy to bring us together?

Today, these patriotic proclamations on facebook are the result of death. Why is it that we are only proud and unified in the midst of tragedy? How can we manifest joy and excitement as the result of pain? Regardless of what side of the “war” you are on, why do we constantly see death and violence as the answer? Why are we united in hatred rather than unified in love?

Then, among the various facebook status updates rejoicing in Bin Laden’s death, I saw this . . .
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction….The chain reaction of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars–must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.” – MLK, Jr.

. . . and these words said everything I was thinking. The vicious cycle that is war, that is hate, that is revenge, will never end unless someone takes the upper hand and extends love in the midst of darkness. To many this may be a naive and idealistic hope, but I am willing to be characterized as such. The good things, the right things, never come easy. In fact they might just be the hardest to achieve. But I am willing to bet we, as Americans, as humans, will have much more to rejoice in while celebrating love than we ever could in continuing the cycle of perpetuating hate.

Thank you for reading this LONG winded post...I had no idea it was going to be this long when I first started it.  But my hope and prayer is that these thoughts and these opinions challenge your way of thinking about this whole situation...and that they give you hope for a brighter future.