“An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind”

– Mahatma Gandhi

I join many others today in the aftermath of the announcement that Osama Bin Laden is dead.  His family mourns.  His organization, hopefully, is weakened by the news.  There have been celebrations in the streets and words of vindication.  For some reason, I kept hearing in my mind the Munchkins of Oz singing, “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead,” after hearing that the Wicked Witch of the East had been crushed by a falling house.  We all know that their celebration was a short one, because very soon they learned that the destruction of one symbol of evil did not mean that evil had been eradicated.

I won’t lie.  I felt a sense of completion when I heard that the ten-year manhunt for Bin Laden had finally ended.  People who harm others need to be stopped; and it is my fervent hope that those who suffered such horrible loss as a result of his plans will be able to move a step closer to healing, knowing that he will not be able to cause this sort of suffering again.  It troubles me that he died without a trial.  It troubles me that there was no chance to complete the circle and hear the man speak to his crimes in a court of law.  It troubles me that, in the end, the only solution to ten years of sadness, fear, and suffering was to kill him — as he had killed so many others.  Darkness fought darkness in the end; and the purely human part of me feels diminished by yet another senseless death.

“Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead.”  I celebrate that evil has been diminished.  I pray that the surviving victims of 9/11 will find some relief in knowing that the mastermind behind their pain will not do this again.  More than that, I pray for the time when all people on all sides of issues will see each other as human beings — as members of their own extended family.  I pray that I live to see the day when darkness is overcome by light rather than additional darkness.  Today I will try to find that place within me that is diminished by the senseless death of any person.  I will light a candle and say a prayer that the world’s darkness will be erased by Light.