Bin Laden

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I'm repelled by the vulgarity of the responses, ranging from the Daily News headline:  Rot In Hell; to the suggestions that this legitimizes the use of torture; to the naive statements from people who should know better that, golly, I guess we'll be pulling out of Afghanistan now; to the bands of morons roaming the streets chanting: USA! USA!; to the jingoistic outbursts of people who claim to be politically progressive; to the people who decry the death penalty, but openly exult over this application of it; to the people who unashamedly cheer over one death as if it mitigates any other death.  Question:  the suicide-hijackers who actually perpetrated the 9-11 attack (does anyone even remember their names?) -- why didn't we have a big cheering rally about their deaths?  Sure, I know, we were busy mourning.  But they were the ones who actually sat on the planes, walked past the people they were abut to murder and looked them in the eye.  Do we vilify their names, dance on their graves?  No.  We go for the easy symbol.  Not the young men in western dress, but the old man in the turban, whose picture upholds the stereotypes we have of Islam.  Did Bin Laden orchestrate the attacks and claim responsibility for them?  Probably, though there was never a trial to prove all these things.  Would he have become a rallying point for anti-American terrorism if America hadn't openly branded him as the symbolic terrorist?  Who knows?  The military response to the attacks was murderous and vile and unjustified.  This death doesn't change that.

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Sent: May 3, 2011 10:35 AM
>To: kelber at mindspring.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Bin Laden
>
>washingtonpost The Washington Post 
>You know that MLK quote everybody's posting? Martin Luther King never said that. 
>http://wapo.st/mS6Ftu #Osama #OBL
>
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Sent: Tue, May 3, 2011 9:01:07 AM
>Subject: RE: Bin Laden
>
>Thank you, Michael.  A welcome antidote to all the jingoistic excess.
>
>Laura
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: cfabel <cfabel at sfasu.edu>
>>Sent: May 3, 2011 8:23 AM
>>To: 'Michael Bailey' <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>, 'P-list' 
>><pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>Subject: RE: Bin Laden
>>
>>Yes.
>>
>>C. F. Abel
>>Chair
>>Department of Government
>>Stephen F. Austin State University
>>Nacogdoches, Texas 75962
>>(936) 468-3903
>>
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
>>Of Michael Bailey
>>Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 1:50 AM
>>To: P-list
>>Subject: Re: Bin Laden
>>
>>Richard Fiero wrote:
>>> Every nitwit in the country is out of the woodwork
>>
>>
>>not yet but here I am...
>>
>>however, the message I bear is simple and true:
>>
>>I will 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." ~ Martin Luther King Jr
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>"...seems the simplest things are hardest to explain" - Dave Mason
>>
>>