I’m sure some of you have wondered whether or not I would be commenting on this gigantic turn of events, and I will now ease the tensions by stirring some emotions. I have waited to comment because now I can stand back from the situation and tell everyone exactly how I feel while in my right mind.
When I learned of Osama’s death I was excited, along with most of the country I’m sure. I felt some contrived sense of brotherhood. Now that I am able to look back at myself, I’m a bit embarrassed by my original reaction. You see, I pride myself in my value of human life. I do not believe in things like the death penalty because I truly believe it is not our place to execute that type of judgment on another individual. However, I know that there are some situations that do not fit in a black and white world…I know very well that the President knew more than any of us ever will about the situation, and in the end it was his call to make. Upon looking at all the information we have been given though, and basing a decision solely on what we as a country have been told about this event…my decision would have been different.
I believe, based again on what America has been told, that Osama Bin Laden was murdered. I am not saying he did not deserve death, I’m also not saying he did…but these men who burst into his bedroom were trained SEALs and we were told that Bin Laden was unarmed (again…I’m basing my feelings on what we were told…because anything other than that is pure speculation). To have killed him like they did is cold-blooded murder, which I will always and forever be against. Of course, I am not stupid and I know there were risks involved as to whether we should kill him or put him on trial. But, this country stands for the right to a trial. There may have been rescue attempts or retaliation by Al Qaeda, but there could be retaliation attempts anyway. So why not make a decision based on our country's morality?
When we cheer for this accomplishment as a country, in the future I hope that we are cheering for further dismantling of terrorism and not for the death of someone this country had painted as evil. I’m not saying that he wasn’t, but I do not believe that he did any of the terrible things that he did because he thought they were wrong. We, as a country, need to understand where this evil image of us is spawned and we need to do our best to change that. Having people in America show their intolerance for Muslims is not the way…burning a Qur’an is not the way…We have to accept that we, just like everyone else have faults. That we display them every day…but that we will also try harder to be the moral country we claim to be.
I think we gained something and lost something in Osama’s death. Maybe…and it’s a big MAYBE, we gained a little piece of mind in the death of a man who let violence consume him. But, we have lost our innocence all over again because we let violence consume us. There was nothing moral about how we handled ourselves post 9/11…We as a country led a pointless war in Iraq…We as a country made fabricated connections to terrorism…AND we as a country have shown that we can make huge mistakes; but, what I hope makes America different is that we can one day own up to them and make good on our faults. And I will stop saying "we as a country" the day we put people in the Bush administration on trial for the atrocities they committed while in office.
I am pleased that Bin Laden is now only a memory…but I do not condone violence. And because of that I am a little heart-broken at the new smudge we have placed on our flag. However, no flag on Earth is without some blemish.
No comments:
Post a Comment