Justice is Done

"How can you not celebrate this man's death?" blurted a local talk radio personality over my radio today. How could I celebrate anyone's death? As most of you know Osama Bin Laden has been killed in a recent military operation, yesterday. Yet I don't feel joyous for this man's death, in fact I don't think I could ever celebrate anyone's death regardless if they deserve it. Several of my fellow bloggers also share in my view rejecting Bin Laden's death as a cause for celebration as seen on the news with crowds of people cheering and chanting U.S.A. Does my lack of celebratory spirit mean I'm a traitorous, terrorist-supporting, unpatriotic American? No. All life is sacred, and until we collectively realize that sacredness we will always have terrorist attacks, wars, and senseless killings. Always.

I wonder if Obama had this Bible verse in mind when stating "justice has been done" during his announcement last night. Maybe we celebrate because the memory of our suffering that day is too great to bear. Maybe we feel Osama did deserve death for death. I'm not saying he didn't deserve it, I just can't find it in myself to celebrate, whoop and holler. What I hope for is a collective awareness of our global neighbor's suffering so that we may be moved to compassion.  I pray that through our collective suffering our hearts are cracked open so that we may learn to love beyond our social, tribal, and national borders.

Peace and blessings be upon you and yours.

Update: I recently stumbled upon an interesting article by Aziz Poonawalla over at City of Brass how he, as a Muslim, is emotionally coping with the recent news of Bin Laden's death.