I have a few thoughts on the apparent killing of Osama bin Laden. And I'm going to share.
I got off work yesterday (Sunday May 1, fwiw) about four, got a beer at the bar, and sat on the patio in front of work. I drank a couple of beers and hung out with various other work and/or downtown people waiting for the evening and a surprise going away party for a coworker.
The party was held in the upstairs of a bar a few feet away, so I didn't really get too far from the same place all day. I may have ridden from one parking garage to another and back to reorient my senses, but that really has nothing to do with Osama or his recent death.
Later on in the night, the party had gone from SUPRISE! to the band playing and people milling about, many of us having moved to the patio as the upstairs is non smoking.
At some point, after having walked down an alley for no good reason I returned and heard chatter about our having killed Osama bin Laden.
My first thoughts in the random number generator that is my head involved, who care? are you sure? and then I went off on some other tangents that have solidified more today as I thought about it all less drunk.
Some of the fun last night was just messing with people, and some of these people, generally sane seeming in normal life, were growing a little upset that I was willing to attempt to detract from the gravity of the situation. Other, possibly drunker people, cheered on when I shouted, "Hell yeah! We killed Obama bin Muslim."
I tried it today and everyone got it immediately, so it could have been late night at a bar, but it still makes me laugh.
I also don't attach a lot of importance to some brown guy with a beard and a long white shirt from the other side of the world. I just can't accept that he has that much power over us. Sure, if the new stories are correctly presenting the situation, Osama got a few good licks in. The the US got serious about hunting him down, and since then he hasn't able to do too damn much, though his organization has apparently kept several country's military arms fairly busy.
And finally, the things that solidified in my head over the course of this morning. I truly believe that people like Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee pose a far greater threat to our liberty than any Islamic terrorist.
solidified thing no. 2-There are people who look to Osama as a hero and likely now a martyr. Perhaps they do hate us freedom loving Americans. I don't hate them. I don't know them, and I think if I were to meet them they might rethink their own feelings. Or maybe they don't really hate us. Maybe they look at things our country has done, or perhaps they feel as if they've been mistreated by our country. I can't know what's in their hearts, but I have to assume they are generally sincere in their beliefs. Perhaps if we talked we could find a middle ground. I don't know. But certainly they hurt when we kill them just as we hurt when they kill us, and neither side seems to have fixed anything even now. There may well be better news tomorrow.
