In Memoriam.

Nearly ten years ago, I puttered around too long, getting ready to go to work.  As a result, I witnessed world change unfold as one plane hit the World Trade Center.  The response was confusion, until the second one hit.

 

Nearly ten years ago, I felt my heart stop when I heard two more planes were en route to Washington, DC, where I had a father in a government building, a close friend at the CIA, and countless others unaccounted for in the middle of the workday.

 

Tonight, I watched that chapter of our collective memoir close.

 

And I am appalled.

 

I have witnessed the following (paraphrased, obviously) exchange in my Facebook feed:

Person: I hear the President wants to talk to us about something.  Makes me nervous.  Hope he doesn’t break into the Celebrity Apprentice.

Friend of Person: Word has it that Bin Laden is dead and we have his body.

Person:  YAY!!!

 

Accompanied by rousing choruses of “ding, dong the <insert insult of choice> is dead!” and lots of “patriotic” HOO-RAHing.  And one incredibly funny comment of “Trump wants to see the death certificate.”

 

Let me be clear: I do not believe in capital punishment.  I cannot take pleasure in the taking of a human life, no matter how evil I personally believe that human being to be.  Am I happy?  Absolutely not.  Intensely relieved?  Yes.  Satisfied?  Somewhat.  Do I think this is, by any means, over?  Not by a long shot.

 

Christians have lightning-quick “eye for an eye!” reflexes, but, when the moment suits them, their selective memories are quick to forget the coda introduced in the sermon on the mount. We will never extract our pound of flesh in this matter, and I do not have the fortitude to forgive this man for what he did.  I may never.  But amid all of the “YEAH”s and “God bless America”s, all I can think is… Goddammit, you people are no better than those that did the same thing in all of those villages the day those thousands of Americans died.

 

Celebrate progress, not death.  Fight the mentality, not the individual.  Stop the hatred, not the heartbeat. 

 

If it took a decade to win the battle, how long to win the war?