Now, I have some suspicions about where this new brand of Americanism was spawned, but for me to say so would be akin to inviting anti-aircraft fire on a fighter plane. I don't know who bears the greater culpability in this instance -- the sources or their adherents.
The news yesterday of the killing of Osama bin Laden brought out a great number of instances of this new American mindset when I stated that I found mass, orgiastic, (and I suspect in many cases) drunken celebrations distasteful. He was a man. A heinous man. A hateful man. A formerly-dangerous man. But still nothing more than a man with an ideology that sought to wipe from the face of the earth what he saw as wrong, according to his interpretation of his religion and by virtue of his own belief system. That he trained and funded a small army in the name of his ideology was, is and will remain a problem for all of humanity for a very long time, but he was still only one man.
In the end, my apparently poorly-worded point was that I will not ever "celebrate" the death of anyone, for any reason. So I was "reminded" by my opponents of the deaths of the likes of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Nicolai Ceausescu, Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein; and of occasions such as V-E Day, the surrender of Japan, the fall of Communism in East Germany and Russia, the fall of fascism in Italy, and so on. Here's where the arrogance of America comes in...these people automatically assumed that I am not aware of some of THE most historic moments in modern history and went on to use these examples as reasons to "celebrate" our little "victory" yesterday. I don't think they're quite equal.
The end of a World War, the end of the oppression of an entire nation, the end of genocide are all highly-welcome and celebratory events, I agree. This one man's death does not do away with the reign of terror...it doesn't even come close.
Then my friends were eager to accuse me of being anti-American and disrespectful of our brave and selfless military personnel if I did not celebrate the death of bin Laden. If this assertion is true and this one man's death was the sole reason for the sacrifices of these admittedly good and dedicated people, then I will be eagerly awaiting the news today that they're all coming home now.
News outlets in all media yesterday broadcasted wall-to-wall coverage of the events leading up to the death of bin Laden. Station after station and broadcaster after broadcaster and analyst after analyst continued to say, argue and deliver the same information hour after hour. This morning (for apparent lack of better, more important news -- there must something else happening the world?), they are fixated on reliving bin Laden's and Al Quaeda's orchestrated attacks around the world over the past decades, re-broadcasting old video and audio. Why? In order to justify his killing? If so, why such raucous, tasteless celebrations as happened yesterday? And why our staunch defense of the very style of celebration (which angered and sickened us) as happened on the streets of Arab nations when they'd heard news of the fall of the Twin Towers, the destruction of the outer ring of the Pentagon, a blood-soaked field in Western Pennsylvania on 9/11/2001, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 innocent people? How did we forget our outrage over that behavior and then use it to justify ours?
I believe that America has lost its way at home and in the world. We have abandoned our sense of grace and dignity and courtesy in the former art of intelligent public discourse. We've forgotten our former courtesy and compassion for one another in our defense of partisan philosophy and our bullying penchant for political labels. We've neglected the responsibility of our example to those around the world who look to us to be the very model of the peace and freedom which we wave like a flag and defend to our dying breath.
I'll recover my pride in my country and my personal dignity because I must. But I was greatly ashamed to be an American yesterday.
We've discussed and I agree
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