An Eye For An Eye Makes The World Go Blind

As I sit here and write this, the news plays behind me and images are on the screen of massive celebration outside the White House because the President has just come on TV and announced to the nation and the world that Osama Bin Laden is dead.  Yet, I, unlike practically everyone else around me, feel a deep heaviness and a deep sadness.

It is not that I grieve for Bin Laden necessarily, I believe that he was an evil person.  There is no denying that evil is a reality in our world, and certainly the acts of such a man like Bin Laden are certainly evil.  I feel this deep sadness because I am seeing and hearing people celebrate his death.  Don't get me wrong, Bin Laden killed Americans and attacked our country on 9/11 in the worst attack our nation has ever seen.

What saddens me is that people celebrate and uplift acts of violence.  There are those who would say to me that this violence is necessary to stop evil, and maybe they're right in the end, but I just keep thinking, "this just doesn't feel right."  I am moved to sadness to see cheering outside the White House, maybe I'm weird, but it just makes me sad.  To me this type of celebration only legitimizes violence in the minds and hearts of those who approve it.  I am reminded of the words spoken by two men: one a fictional character, a poor milkman, Tevye from Fiddler on The Roof, "A eye for an eye makes the world go blind."  I wonder, how much longer will we live in a world blinded by hatred, whether it be for someone like Osama Bin Laden or anyone else we label as "enemy"?

The second person I am mindful of had much in common with Tevye the milkman, poor and a lover of God, a believer in the Jewish faith tradition, Jesus of Nazareth.  Words attributed to him read, "You have heard it said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I say to you, Love you enemies and pray for those who persecute you...for [God] makes [the] sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matt. 5:43-44 edit mine)

What I mean to do here, to say in this moment is that these above quotes remind me of my commitment to justice.  Regardless of the evil of Bin Laden, I believe that we are all connected to each other and as such, I cannot and will not perpetuate the praise of death.  I will not revel in it because I know that somewhere in the world there is a family who is feeling pain, and I cannot celebrate their pain, as I wouldn't want someone to celebrate mine or the pain felt by the families of those who lost loved ones on that horrific day in September of 2001.

What I do take from this is that this moment in history reminds me, and hopefully all of us, that peace is urgently needed in our world.  As I see these celebratory images, I am reminded of words from the Buddhist sacred writing the Dhammapada that I think hold such incredible power, especially in moments such as these:
"For hatred can never put an end to hatred, love alone can." -Dhammapada 1:5