Right now, there is a man on I Street selling “Obama got Osama” t-shirts. This joker wasted NO TIME! He must have hit the print shop at 6AM to be able to have shirts ready to sell at Noon. I wonder how many of those stupid tees he managed to move today…
It’s ironic that before I heard the news about Osama Bin Laden’s death, I was at the movies watching The Conspirator. This film was about the trial of Mary Surratt, who was accused of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The movie highlighted how a national tragedy of an unforeseen magnitude can make people abandon ideals that the U.S. was built on in the quest to hold someone accountable and bring him or her to justice to restore peace of mind for everyday citizens. Basically, it illustrated how what happened at the end of the Civil War bears some stark similarities to post 9-11 America.
In times like these, it’s easy to use the word “justice” when you really mean “revenge.” Let me make this totally clear: I feel that Bin Laden got exactly what he deserved. However, I wasn’t one of those people celebrating his death outside of the White House, because there is really nothing to celebrate. What’s done is done. Killing him isn’t going to bring back all of the people who died on September 11th, nor the soldiers who are still dying in the Middle East right now. It’s a symbolic milestone, but nothing to party about.
It’s kind of like the feeling that I got when my friend Neil was murdered last Summer on his way home from work. They caught the teenagers who did it, and from what I was told, one of the kids(not the shooter) ended up himself getting killed a few months later. When I heard about the guy’s death, I said “F*ck him. I hope the little coward is burning in Hell right now.” Then, I sat back and felt bad for letting my emotions take me to such an ugly place. Yes, the kid helped take my friend’s life, but as I said before, his death isn’t going to bring Neil back. All it resulted in was another young person who threw his life away over something stupid and became a homicide statistic. There was nothing to celebrate about that, just like there’s not much celebrate about this.
Now, I can’t lie; y’all know me over here. I have made a few off-color Bin Laden jokes because, well, f*ck it. He’s a murderer. No one feels sorry for him. The man killed thousands of people, then hid and released jihad mixtapes like the 50 Cent of terrorism. The worst part about it is that all this time, he was laid up in a mansion while folks thought he’d be hiding out in some cave. Folks were climbing treacherous mountains to find him, and this guy was home watching Martin and Everybody Loves Raymond DVDs on a leather couch in his slippers. So yeah, once again, f*ck Osama Bin Laden.
Now that I’ve filled my obligatory joke quota for this entry, I would like to ask my American readers to take the high road and avoid reveling in the fact that this guy is finally dead after an almost decade-long manhunt. It is definitely a victory, but we still have a ways to go before our troops are home. To those out there on the front lines, I’m praying for you.
“The man killed thousands of people, then hid and released jihad mixtapes like the 50 Cent of terrorism.”
Excellent line.
BUT, here’s my disagreement with the idea that we shouldn’t celebrate. (And no, I didn’t go out in the streets, but I did think about it.) This a-hole didn’t just kill people, he killed an entire way of life. I think, the celebrations are more along the lines of, “Look, you big dumb moron, we’re coming back. We’ll be great again and you can’t scare us anymore.” Obviously, I think like you said, we have a loooooong way to go, but hey, this is a pretty good step in the right direction. I think it’s more a sense of relief that there can possibly be an end to this…
The real celebration for me will start the day we don’t have to choose between letting TSA see us naked or have them stick their hands down our pants (it happens now), is the day we can really start celebrating.
You’re right, especially about the world changing as a result of what he did. However, I put some of the blame on the people who capitalized off of the panic and fear post 9-11 and made Americans feel like you have to give up freedom and rights in order to be truly safe. I have enough faith in Americans as a whole, to know that we’ll eventually move forward and get past what we’re dealing with right now as far as everything post 9-11.
Like a lot of us I’ve been reading the different blogs, and comments, concerning bin Laden and yours is the only one that i’ve found that calls it what it is..vengeance.
I too have no sympathy for the man or the others that died with him. If anything I’ll save it for the woman one of the cowards had the nerve to put in front of him as a shield. How weak was THAT sh*t?
Anyway, keep telling it like it tis’ in your own special way.
Peace
I’m glad you agree. Also, the human shield thing was as cowardly as it gets.
Forgive me for not trusting my own government, but I will believe it when i see it. They were quick to put out pics of Saddam when he was executed.
I saw pics that foreign sites had up, and that dead bamma DEFINITELY looked like Bin Laden. I wouldn’t advise doing a search for those pictures now though, unless you want a bunch of spyware on your computer.
I said it earlier today, wanting to see those pictures are just to satisfy some dark urge within us to see the suffering on his face, the way he made America suffer, we all know he is dead…
It’ll just incite even more anger with those bat shi* crazy talibans and i still want to fly!
Wonderful post leon. I agree with everything you said.
Thanks