By Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.
Martin Luther King Jr. said:
“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.”
Osama Bin Laden is dead.
What does that mean exactly?
Vindication? A cause for celebration? Justice served? Revenge?
When I heard the news I was surprised, “Wow, I can’t believe it really happened,” was the thought that came up in my head.
Then I clicked on a video showing me the crowds of lively people screaming and jumping around in jubilation around the death of a man screaming, “USA, USA, USA,” like we had just won the World Cup.
I had this gut feeling that the reaction seemed sort of strange. This wasn’t like we just kicked in the winning goal, we just killed somebody, it seemed like I was watching some kind of dark comedy.
I thought what was the difference between what I was seeing on the video and a crowd standing cheering while some enemy was getting stoned to death in front of us?
You see, my reaction wasn’t to Osama Bin Laden dying, he was a man who caused so many people much lifelong pain and I’m glad we don’t have to worry about him anymore (that doesn’t mean we don’t have to worry about others who want to cause us harm.”)
But something just seemed off, as if we weren’t processing our emotions around this properly. It was a good day for America, yes, but a day for cheering, laughing and jubilation?
Anyway, I decided to sleep on it.
This morning when I woke up I saw a post from Susan Piver who seemed to have the same reaction to me.
She said something that made a lot of sense:
“Look at your own reaction this morning.
Was there even a hint of vengefulness or gladness at Osama bin Laden’s death? If so, that is a real problem. Whatever suffering he may have experienced cannot reverse even one moment of the suffering he caused. If you believe his death is a form of compensation, you are deluded.
There has been an outpouring of misdirected jubilation, as if a contest had been won. Nothing has been won. Unlike winning a sporting event, this doesn’t mean that our team has triumphed. Far from it. There is only one team and it is us.”
How long will it take or maybe a better question is what will it take for us to recognize that we are all connected to one another? Causing pain to another group of people is a strange place to derive happiness from. It seems to be a false happiness, at the root it’s really anger or fear.
Thich Nhat Hanh has a wonderful saying, “Peace in ourselves, Peace in the world.”
This isn’t a Pollyanna notion that we should all just hold hands, pretend there’s no war, pain, and trauma, this is a very real and practical path toward creating a better world.
We need to learn how to take a good look at the wars we have raging inside each and every one of us in response to our own personal traumas in life. Whether that’s the death of a loved one, harm inflicted on us, or some form of emotional trauma and learn ways to create peace within ourselves.
It’s a very simple path, but not at all easy. That’s why we default to being reactive and causing more war. Just my opinion here.
So goodbye Osama Bin Laden may the families and friends who have suffered at your hands feel more at peace without you around. And may you be at peace with the wars that raged within you to the point where you held the misguided delusion that killing thousands of people was somehow a path in the right direction.
May we all be free from our misguided reactions to the wars within and help guide all people into a direction of greater empathy, compassion, and peace within ourselves and the world.
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