The idea that there were people in the street celebrating Bin Laden’s death, and behaving as if it was time to party is disgusting to me. It was reported that after hearing of his death, people spontaneously gathered at Ground Zero and began singing the Na Na Na, Hey Hey Goodbye song. Is this what things have devolved to – celebrating a man’s death in the same way you would a Yankees victory?
I don’t care how many deaths bin Laden is responsible for - using it as an excuse for a party is like a tacit admission that murder is a moral act, as long as you have the high ground. I am grateful that he can no longer take lives, but I am not going to party and sing about it.
The American response to the September 11th attacks, especially the Iraq war, seemed destined to escalate terrorism and to put our country at greater risk. I felt uncomfortable with the Bush administration’s knee jerk reaction to wage war against a country that had little to do with the catastrophe. It was as if the only way we were capable of reacting was to begin killing people, regardless of whether they were guilty or not.
All the celebrating in the world will not bring back the thousands of Americans that died on September 11th. Nor will it bring back the hundreds of thousands of people who have died since then. Do you think we can call it even now?
