First Published May 3rd, 2011@3:22pm:
I saw this today in the comments under an article about you-know-who being killed.
I found out about it yesterday afternoon when I accidentally flipped on to CNN and there was Obama giving a speech. After I realized what he was talking about, I turned it off (I had to stuff to do before my German class that evening).
I had several initial thoughts:
1. What?
2. Hmm. I wonder how it happened.
3. Sniper?
4. Are they sure it was him?
5. This isn’t going to change anything.
6. Oh crap, I still haven’t done my German homework.
7. “*sigh* I wonder if there will be retaliation. Not thinking about it. Not thinking about it.
8. I wonder if they’re going to step up Obama’s Secret Service detail.
I left the house, drove to meet my friend at the cafe to study, blasted Taio Cruz in the truck (can’t stop listening to his CD), and put it out of my mind.
Yesterday, the only thing I read that was specifically about it was this guy’s Twitter feed – the thing’s gone viral. The poor guy is unintentionally famous now, just for Twittering about things going on going on in his outside his place while he was trying to get to sleep, which turned out to be the whole thing going down. (He’s been awfully good-humored about landing smack dab in the middle of the media typhoon. One of his latest Tweets was: “Bin Laden is dead. I didn’t kill him. Please let me get some sleep now.”)
Facebook is just insane right now. I piggy-backed onto link about the Twitter guy from a link on my Home page, and it was in those comments that I read quote that is this blog’s title.
[I want to make it clear that I did not write that, or ever even think it. As an atheist, I don’t really have the option to pray for somebody’s death and I prefer it that way.]
That was really the last straw. I’m going to go into full MSM news blackout mode – well as much as I can – i.e. NOT turning on the news. In everyday life, it’s easier for me to do, I know. I’m at the bottom of the globe, Further Down Under than Down Under. It’s probably all over the papers here although I wouldn’t know, because I haven’t left the house today (yesterday, it was still all about the royal wedding).
In German class last night, not one single person said anything about it. That wouldn’t happen in the US.
I have a friend staying with me this week (not American). When I got home from class, she had CNN or BBC World on. She said, “Do you know?” I said, “Yeah. He was assassinated, huh.” My friend said, “They buried the body already.” How many people are going to want more proof than that, I thought. Not me. That was the extent of our conversation on that. I turned the news off so I could get in a work-out before I didn’t feel like it anymore.
Did I imagine the blurb that said he was buried at sea?
Since Bin Laden’s demise wasn’t exactly my first thought upon waking up today, I honestly completely forgot all about it until I got on Facebook this afternoon.
A friend had posted a link to this blog post, which mirrors many of my feelings.
Another one of my friends on FB mentioned in a comment that he was shot in the face. For a split second, I felt bad for him. I couldn’t help myself. I don’t want to be a person who would yell “Woo Hoo!” at something like that, no matter who it is. Anyway, I don’t know if that was true or not, but I won’t know because I’m just not going to read or watch anything more about it for now.
Steven’s in the US right now. He just wrote me an email that he was waiting in an airport in North Carolina. “There is some serious blood lust going on around the US…it is really scary.”
I’m not perfect. I often wish rapists, pedophiles, serial killers, wife and child-beaters, and animal-torturers would just disappear off the face of the planet – and I don’t particularly care how. I believe that although we should try our hardest to avoid it, war is sometimes necessary. Our world as we know it isn’t some kind of Shangri-La. Perhaps someday, we won’t need violence to solve some things and I can’t wait for that day. I probably won’t see it in my lifetime. These are issues that I’m working out with myself. (It’ll be a while. Don’t hold your breath.)
But, the blood lust in the reactions I’ve been noticing in people since yesterday – it bugs me.
It’s human nature I know…considering…
And, it’s not like I cried buckets for the guy, either.
But, I think I actually felt physically ill for a bit.
I’m hibernating. Books (reading about anything but). Movies. Writing. Some alcohol consumption wouldn’t be out of the question. ( I’ll go play some pool with a friend on Friday night in order to get that last one in.)
I need to reflect.
I’ll just leave you guys with a some quotes and this post: A sect cannot be destroyed by cannonballs.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. – MLK
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. – Yoda
It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it. – Nietzsche
“I will not leave you until I have seen you hanged!” – Molière
Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged. – Samuel Johnson
———————————-
Updated May 4th, 2011@12:59pm: You know I couldn’t leave this alone. I had questions. They needed to be answered. It is ME we’re talking about here. This is another article I read yesterday. I’ve been limiting the reading, but this one is a solid take on the whole thing from Robert Fisk in The Independent – he’s met Bin Laden a few times, so he has some insight that most of us do not. Also, an article from New Scientist about the DNA identification. In addition, a couple of rather enlightening one from The Independent by David Usborne: How Obama kept the biggest secret of his presidency and the transcript of PBS’s Jim Lehrer’s talk to CIA Director Leon Panetta. Finally, from The Nation, an article on the media coverage.
These are just articles I’m presenting to you FYI. They do not necessarily reflect any views I have on the matter.
(This one does, though: Torture Slowed Down Efforts to Find Bin Laden – an interview by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman – video)
Hmm. Don’t think I’ve ever officially put a disclaimer in before. That’s a first.
I wonder how many people are going to want to be Navy Seals now.
Paikea Restored 