Ramble on Bin Laden Being Dead

Obviously, it's everywhere. It's all over the news, all over facebook, all over the emails my mom sent me this morning. Osama bin Laden is dead. We killed him. Celebrate!

I'm glad that someone filled with so much hate, who had so much power, can no longer use that power for the purposes of hate and violence and terror. I'm glad that people whose lives were affected by September 11th and the war that followed now have some solace. I'm glad that the twelve-year mystery as to where he is has been solved. I'm glad that some sort of punishment has happened against someone who's killed thousands of people in terror attacks, and that people who needed vengeance got it.

I remember one time in middle school, my friend was like "I don't hate anyone." And we were like "No one? Not even Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden?" They were always the example we used for the worst people in the world, because the were evil and our country hated them.

But here's the thing. I don't want to celebrate this. Because first of all, I have an inherent problem with celebrating a death. I also have a problem with calling a person "evil." Yes, I know he's done unspeakably horrible, evil things. But I just have trouble saying "Hoorah, he's dead!", no matter who it's about.

Secondly, terrorism isn't over. I know everyone knows this. But this man was just a symbol, and he's been in hiding for twelve years, and I'm sure that the rest of Al Qaeda can and will go right ahead scheming. There is so much hate in this world. It's not about this one dude, and whether we found him and shot him, maybe without ever even trying to capture him alive. Children are instilled with hate every day, by Al Qaeda and other organizations and in their daily life and in their homes, in the Middle East and Asia and Europe and Africa and the U.S. and all over the world. Hate is the problem, and we didn't get rid of that with the bullet that killed Osama bin Laden yesterday.