Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Osama's Death Should Not Be Celebrated

In my previous entries, I've been clear that in my opinion, Americans should not celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden. Hours after the news came out, as it turned out, I was not alone in my opinion. Columnists, a few political pundits, and even the Vatican all spoke against the initial reactions some Americans (or at least those who showed up in Lafayette Park in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. and Ground Zero in NYC) showed during the immediate aftermath of the big announcement. 

I singled out a banner prominently displayed by one reveler in NYC, which read "Obama=1 Osama=0" because of its taunting and provoking tone (or perhaps intent).  And now here comes another shameful play on the news of Osama's death under the hands of US Navy Seals that callously insinuates sex after an enemy's death is highly gratifying. I can't even imagine how this team of yellow paper journalists put sex and the news of Osama's death together. Add to that, why ask your readers about what they think. But of course, it's TMZ.      


Not a cause for celebration indeed. In Pamela Gerloff's article on Huffington Post today, she writes that people should have the decency to caution themselves against any celebration of sorts. Osama may be the biggest threat to Americans when he was still alive and now that he's dead, it doesn't mean that his death should not be afforded at least a little decency or even modesty. Real victors celebrate with humility and complete respect for their defeated enemy. In this case, we may have slain the beast but the poison remains and it would linger far longer than most Americans have estimated.

As I've said, more people are saying that although it's Osama, world's public enemy No. 1 and most wanted, it's not a cause for public display of celebration like it's a major win in the World Series or the Stanley Cup or the Olympics. Caution and decency are the things we should consider.

Here are the other pundits, intellectuals, and writers that speak and feel the same about how wrong it is for us to celebrate boldly Osama's death: Dr. David P. Gushee (Professor of Christian Ethics) ; the celebrity and well-respected Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Rabbi and writer) ; Jim WallisChristian leader for social change ; and finally, Rev. James Martin, S.J.Catholic priest and author, 'The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everyt.   
  

2 comments:

  1. You know how I could be a conspiracy theorist at times, I wrote this on hubby's wall that if the conspiracy is indeed true, they killed bin Laden so it will not be known that the planes were decoys and the real bomb that sent WTC down were from below - planted ones : by Bush ^_^

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  2. What's interesting is Bush's kind (at best) rejection of Obama's invite to be at NYC's Ground Zero for a press conference. I guess Bush has better things to do.

    But you see, as for the conspiracy theories, it keeps the people talking, which is good in some sense. There are really an awful lot of unanswered hard questions as to certain details of the WTC bombings.

    That's the thing with American intelligence work (I mean the CIA, FBI, etc.), you'll never know what's genuine or planted or self-instigated. Even among those agencies, they fight for scoops and resources.

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