Bin Laden is dead. What is the world coming to?

“Mummy, why did they have to kill him?  Couldn’t they have just captured him”?  asked my 18 year old daughter as she, her brother and I watched President Obama making the announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed.  I felt no elation, no joy, no relief at this news.  Frankly, I felt uncomfortable.  But it was late, so I went to bed.

 

The next morning, I viewed various news reports of celebration and protests.  They looked startlingly similar – photos of people either celebrating death or threatening death.  “USA USA” one side chanted; “Death to USA Death to USA” chanted the other.  Where’s the peace?

 

A friend on Facebook wanted to know, with a sense of distress, “What is this world coming to”?  What IS this world coming to?  Is it reeling towards its fiery, cataclysmic end sooner rather than later?  I don’t know, but what I do believe is that humanity is on an ever-evolving path of consciousness.  Let’s face it – history is replete with the killing of enemies.  What’s different now is that through technology, we know about these things instantaneously.  And the same technology also gives us an individual voice to add to the discourse, to take action and to make a difference.

 

Later in the day, I happened upon a blog that held this quote by the man of peace himself, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

 

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

 

Now I understand my discomfort.   I don’t know why and how bin Laden was killed.  I hold no brief for him.  I do NOT support his cause.  But I will not celebrate his death, for that means coming from a place of  hate, as he did.  Instead, I choose love and peace.  Where does peace begin?  Not with the killing of bin Laden – but with me, in my heart.  Just as bin Laden, one man, could make a difference, so can I, one woman.  And the difference I choose to make today is: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me”.  This is what I have decided the world is coming to.