Tuesday, October 25, 2011

May 3, 2011-Thoughts on Osama Bin Ladin's death

A couple of days ago, Osama Bin Laden, mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, was killed. Since then I've followed the news and read the comments of dozens of people regarding his death. I have not commented myself, because I hadn't really sorted out what I was feeling. My emotions have been so mixed about this: Disbelief--could this really have happened, now after all this time? Relief--that we've finally caught the killer and brought him to justice. Sadness--because I know where he is now, and what remorse he must be feeling too late. Pride--that the military was smart enough to capture him. All together it adds into almost an emotional numbness that refuses to feel any one emotion very strongly.

I was listening to Glenn Beck yesterday in my car, and he replayed a montage of sound clips from 9/11 that brought back all of the emotions from ten years ago. I was weeping by the time I reached work. The thought that I had then was that the death of one man cannot make up for all the carnage he caused. Only God can truly bring justice.

Today, most of the comments I have been reading for others are berating others for posting their own thoughts. It seems everyone wants to tell everyone else how they should or should not be feeling. I think that all of those feelings--joy, sorrow, disbelief, apathy, patriotism--have their places. I feel them all in me, and I can understand why those beliefs would be reflected in the posts of other people. There's no right or wrong way to feel about this. Let's just allow people to work through their own emotional mix on this, without casting judgment on those emotions.

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