{"id":1394,"date":"2011-05-02T08:34:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T15:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=1394"},"modified":"2011-05-02T08:58:12","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T15:58:12","slug":"editorial-on-the-death-of-bin-laden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=1394","title":{"rendered":"Editorial – On the Death of bin Laden"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bill Coburn<\/p>\n

I have mixed emotions today.\u00a0 I was raised to believe that it is not okay to rejoice in someone else\u2019s misfortune, and to rejoice in someone\u2019s death is never okay.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I recognize that Osama bin Laden was an evil man.\u00a0 I believe that the world is safer without him, and that the U.S. was correct in hunting him down, even in killing him.\u00a0 I accept his death.\u00a0 But I am not comfortable with rejoicing in his death.<\/p>\n

I was never in the military.\u00a0 I do not know the stress and pressure of having a son, daughter or sibling in harm\u2019s way because they are part of the war begun in response to the evil acts perpetrated by those who hate America and the American way of life.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had relatives and friends who have served our country.\u00a0 While there was always an undercurrent of concern for their safety, I happen to be one of those people who generally believes that things are going to be okay until I\u2019m proven wrong.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t know how my attitude might change if I had lost a loved one, or even if I was just 24\/7 tense out of concern for their safety.<\/p>\n

But I know a man who lost a son in the World Trade Center, a firefighter who ran into one of the Twin Towers to rescue those who were inside.\u00a0 You can read that story here<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 John Napolitano, Sr. was approached by a New York TV crew at an anniversary memorial of 9\/11, and asked if he had any anger.\u00a0 I found his answer inspiring.\u00a0 He said \u201cMy anger is that, in this day and age, with all the spectacular things that humankind can do, with all the goodness that is in us, that there are people that are filled with so much hate and rage at those that don’t think the way they do, or don’t pray the way they do, that they are willing to sacrifice themselves just to know that they killed and made them suffer.. them and their families.\u201d\u00a0 Napolitano continued in his e-mail to me \u201cTo those people who would commit, or condone, acts of hatred, I say this.. that although the world saw on September 11, 2001 such an act of hate.. they also saw acts of Compassion, Professionalism, and Profound Courage, and it is these acts that the World at large will forever remember and embrace.:<\/p>\n

I have seen an outpouring of reactions to Osama\u2019s death on Facebook, from people that are my friends.\u00a0 Let me say first that I respect everyone\u2019s right to say what they will in reaction, that\u2019s one of the things that makes this country the great place that it is.\u00a0 Many of them are expressing their thanks for the role played by the men and women in the service who risk their lives daily in the war on terror.\u00a0 I, too, am grateful for the service and sacrifice of so many Americans.\u00a0 Some of these folks are rejoicing and expressing attitudes that I just can\u2019t be comfortable about, though.<\/p>\n

I remember the revulsion I felt when I saw people in the Middle East cheering and jumping up and down celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers.\u00a0 Celebration not unlike that which was broadcast from the White House last night.\u00a0 And I can\u2019t help but consider the fact that it is representative of an attitude which stoked the fires of hatred which caused bin Laden and his supporters to attack us in the first place.\u00a0 They kill us and cheer, we kill them and cheer.\u00a0 When does it end?<\/p>\n

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it… Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate… Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”. — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n

Your comments are welcomed.\u00a0 Register a user name (doesn’t have to be your actual name) and password and you’ll receive a verification notice.\u00a0 Then you can comment.\u00a0 There is no intrusion on your privacy, just a legitimate e-mail address is requested\u00a0(if you want to share on Facebook, third party facilitator Alpha Links asks all kind of stuff, but that’s a different process).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bill Coburn I have mixed emotions today.\u00a0 I was raised to believe that it is not okay to rejoice in someone else\u2019s misfortune, and to rejoice in someone\u2019s death is never okay.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[53],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}