I've been sitting here for the past few hours, absorbing the news about Osama's death. I heard the president speak, I've read the statements from world leaders, I've seen the pictures of people celebrating at Ground Zero and in front of the White House, and this is what's prompted me to post my first diary since discovering this site back in 2006. To this day I still can't look at images or videos of September 11, the emotions are too much nearly ten years later. I feel like I should be happy that this vile monster is gone, no longer able to plan the murder of innocent people or spew his abhorrent ideology.
But I'm not happy. It's the idea of celebrating the death that I can't get past. I feel like I can't be happy about a person's death, no matter how disgusting the person was and no matter how much better off I think the world is without him. If anything, I feel more of a grim sense of accomplishment. We did what we had to, now let's move on with our lives.
I'm not saying Osama shouldn't have been killed, because I certainly think he deserved it. I give full credit to Obama and our military and intelligence operations for taking action, and accomplishing something that we've been trying to do for more than a decade. I'd much rather prefer it if Osama had been taken alive and put on trial, but I feel that using lethal force was better than ignoring him and doing nothing.
I'm also not saying the people who are celebrating Osama's death are being callous or immoral or anything like that. If this is an expression of their feelings, who am I to say that those feelings are wrong or somehow improper? I just won't be joining them. And who knows, maybe there will be reasons to celebrate. Maybe this will bring the troops back faster from the Middle East. Maybe this will demoralize the terrorists, making them less willing to carry out attacks or less able to bring in new recruit. Maybe this will even make the Republicans stop lying and stop stiring up intolerance...or at least make them lie and stir up intolerance on a smaller scale.
Maybe then I'll be ready to cheer and celebrate the news. But I can't bring myself to open the champagne yet.