Thursday, May 5, 2011

history in the making...

this is something my dad always says.
every event that pops up on the news he says "you're watching history being made right now"
and it's true. he has created an appreciation of historical moments in me.

so I felt like I should blog a little bit about the recent events in world history with the death of Osama Bin Laden...  just so later on in life I can look back on this and say where was I when I heard the news of Osama Bin Laden's death ?
just like 9/11.  I was in the hallway of Rock Hill High School, 9th grade, and my best friend Ashley Wilson told me because I had been in the art room which is secluded from the rest of the school & didn't have a TV so we didn't hear immediately, but about 15 minutes later.  And the entire school gathered around the TVs and watched the horrifying events unfold....
I heard about the capturing of Saddam Hussein while sitting at my Uncle Charlie's house.... I remember this because they have a huge TV...

and so I also now remember when I first heard about Osama...
my computer was broken with a virus, so I was using Lee's for about 10 minutes while he was studying and I read on a friend Sarah Barkoff's status something like.... "what? I just heard they killed Osama Bin Laden" and I read it and thought "yea right" and then went to bed.  I didn't even try to google it or watch the news on TV... I just went to sleep.
In the morning I always, always watch the Today Show and they confirmed.  Lee may or may not have yell it to me while I was still laying in bed half alseep... that part is foggy.
We watched in disbelief as college students from around the USA flooded the streets cheering and celebrating. and I was a little sickened.
I 100% agree that he was an evil man, I know that we have been searching for him for almost 10 years... I know he hated America, I know this is war.
but I just find it hard to celebrate the death of anyone. anyone.

I don't really know what my opinion of all of this is.
I'm still trying to decide how I feel about all the little details.
Should they have informed the government of Pakistan that they were invading, should they have tried to capture him first, should they have dumped his body in the ocean.... should they have used waterboarding to get the info, should they close Guantanamo....

I do know that I do not, do not want to see photos of his body.  I don't need proof like that.

I am what I would consider to be overtly patriotic.  I love America more than you can imagine. 
Ask my poor Canadian husband.  (I know.... what was I thinking?? marrying a foreigner is not something I would have expected of myself, so it must have been true love)
but, when I heard the news I did not feel an overwhelming sense of national pride because it was clouded by all the celebrating and horrible things I heard about celebrating his death.
I was reminded how I felt when I saw people around the world burning American flags and celebrating 9/11... we were doing the same thing back to them. 
war is messy.

I feel a slight sense of justice... much less that I'd expect myself to feel.
I feel weird.

My prayers are with the military, the government, the families of 9/11 victims, families of those lost during this war, and for Al Qaeda to change their ways and to not seek retaliation.... I believe that every human soul is worth saving and is capable of being saved right up until death....

1 comment:

Cat said...

Yeah, I am with you on this. Great post. I keep reading Facebook status updates that say "Praise God Osama is dead" which just doesn't seem right whatsoever. It is a difficult thing... I just try to think that there were very few alternatives. I fear having him in jail forever would give the possibility of escape/freedom someday. So perhaps it is for the best? Jonathan and I were just talking about that, thinking we should ask our priest what he thought about this so your post is timely.

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