So we killed Osama May 2, 2011

So we killed Osama, and that’s indisputably good. Our inability to find the person responsible for the 9/11 tacks, which have become the plank with which we’ve stood upon and bullied so much of the rest of the world, served to underscore that we really just Don’t Know What The Fuck We’re Doing, collectively. And while that hasn’t really changed, I can only hope that it might – might – serve to diminish some of the hysteria over terrorism, in the same way that maybe, just maybe, Khan might have chilled the fuck out a little bit if he’d manage to kill off Captain Kirk near the end of Star Trek II.

(Warning: Not the last science fiction comparison I’m going to use here. The nerd-squeamish should look away now)

But in the end, other than perhaps a cooling balm across the itchy scalp of our national psyche, what has this changed? The dead of 9/11 are still dead. Those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that trace some or all of their genesis to our reaction to 9/11, are still dead. This will not behead terrorism at all. So… why the fist-pumping? Why celebrate as if your favorite sports team has won?

In my mind’s eye this morning, as I read various responses screencapped from across the web, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the sickness I felt in my stomach over the footage of people happily dancing in the street, overjoyed over the news of the towers falling. Part of me saw red – I mean fuck, I am human here… but mostly, just despair. Because the breeding ground for war is hate, and hate thrives where there is no mutual understanding and respect. And in those tears of happy joy over the deaths of so many innocents, I could see no future where there was room for respect or understanding. I could see no room where, if I found myself face to face, I could be “just folk”.

That savage joy over the death of innocents underscores an important, yet lost fact: That this can never be a ledger balanced in blood – that addressing the root cause of all of this requires the humility to reach out a hand, and not the hubris to happily flip the bird. And in taking such savage joy, instead of somber approval that the deed was finally done, we show that we’re stewing in toxic amounts of hubris, and sorely lacking in humility.

Of course, I don’t equate the joy over Bin Laden’s death with the death of innocents. They’re more than polar ice-caps apart – but this is the time to remember why we went after him, because people died. This giddy happiness and chants of “USA! USA! USA!”, it’s like capering with glee at the execution of a murderer, right in front of the family of the victims. If we want to believe that we’re really that good, then we, collectively, need to be a fuck of a lot better than this.

So I’m going to take a page from Battlestar Galactica… when it came time to acknowledge the death of an enemy, it went from jubilation to a remembrance of all of those who had died at his hands. So toast the soldiers who did the deed and put their lives on the line, and then toast those who aren’t here, because of what he set in motion. And then take a good hard look at where we really are.