The 'Owsting" of Osama

"This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done." -Fmr. President Geroge W. Bush

There a few events in my lifetime that I will remember exactly what I was doing, where I was and who I was with when these histric events unfolded. The first, September 11, 2001 and recently May 1, 2011. I shed tears on both days; tears of heartache for the 3000 lives that were brutally ended and the happy tears for the later date when justice was served to the 3000, their family and friends.

I've given a lot of thought to the death of this man, and whether it is okay to celebrate it. Some have even gone so far as to say that celebrating his death is "a violation of human dignity."

Really, people?

The problem I have with the quote stated above is that it is impossibly hard for me to consider Osama bin Laden a member of the human race. To place-him!-on the same level (in any respect) as the seven billion souls he shared this world with is a concept that jars me. 

There truly are a few people who the human race is better off without. 

From my Christian opinion, that is not to say that they are not worth anything (D&C 18:10) but let's get real: Just because a person is worth something does not mean they are or did work towards the betterment of mankind. To look at a man who actively  worked against that and to call him "human" is unsettling. 

One of the important distinctions that I believe was overlooked by the press was that people were not so much celebrating the death of OBL as they were celebrating what his death represented. The same could be said for those who cheered with the Twin Towers fell. For them, it was not necessarily the deaths of innocent thousands that made them happy, but the triumph of their disgustingly perverted interpretation of "Islam" that 9/11 represented. 

For those who cheered at Ground Zero and at the White House, it was not necessarily the death of Bin Laden that was cause for joy, but the symbolic achievement of justice (not revenge), and of nearly a decade of sacrifice by so many courageous American servicemen and women. That while those who fight in the name of Freedom may suffer battle wounds that will never been seen, never be treated, and never heal, the cause for which they so valiantly fight will prevail.

On both 9/11 and 5/1, cheers erupted for a cause that was advanced, rather than for deaths that were incurred along the way. The difference was that those who died on 9/11 were innocent. Osama bin Laden was a mass murderer. And unlike the victims of 9/11, Osama bin Laden received a proper burial according to Islamic belief and tradition. 

So yes, I am happy that Osama bin Laden is dead. I guess I do celebrate the death of some people. And if you think that is sick and twisted or not very Christian of me or a violation of human dignity or not something that Martin Luther King Jr. would approve of (by the way, that quote that every is using in retaliation is not real) then so be it. 

And if you think it is stupid of me, and thousand of other Americans to celebrate OBL's death publicly because it will tick-off terrorists, guess what? We killed the sucker and they are already ticked-off, our actions are irrelevant to their psychotic brains. 

"Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, Al-Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity." - President Obama

The world is better-off because Osama bin Laden is dead.


Love always, 
  Christine