DeeEl's Mo Chroí Scríofa

Is It Really Justice?

On Sunday, May 1, 2011, United States President Barack Obama went on national television to announce that the world’s number one most wanted, Usama Bin Laden, had been killed in a late night raid on a compound in Pakistan.  The raid took all of forty minutes and left the infamous terrorist with two bullet holes in his head courtesy of a US Navy S.E.A.L.

Not being awake at that hour, I received the news as soon as I got up and turned on the television for my morning news fix.  I sat on my couch with my tea watching in stunned quasi-awareness while the reporters provided information as if a mama bird feeding her hungry hatchlings.  I could not believe that Mr. Bin Laden’s reign of terror was finally over.  Still in the back of my mind, I knew his people would pick up the torch and carry on in his ways.

It has now been six days and everyone keeps saying that justice has been served and this is a United States victory.  I beg to differ.

Don’t get me wrong, I was completely devastated on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 when the announcements came through my radio speakers telling of the planes crashing into the towers in New York City.  I spent days watching in horror as all the details began coming to the surface.  Being as patriotic as I am, I finally had to shut everything off. I could not watch the news or even read my newspaper.  In fact, I saved those papers to read at a later date.  I still have not been able to read them.  I felt as if someone reached in and ripped out my heart and left me bleeding on the inside.  I cried every night after coming home from work knowing that someone came in and hurt the country that I love.  On September 16, 2001 I finally finished the song I wrote about it called Unity.

But, has justice really been served?  I cannot say that it has, in my opinion.  To me having justice served means the perpetrator, in this case Usama Bin Laden, will be arrested, stand trial, be found guilty and then be sentenced and serve that sentence.  There are many who are disputing the reports that Mr. Bin Laden is in fact deceased.  They feel seeing photos will provide the needed proof of his demise.  Photos have been faked since photography came to be.  However, a trial and much witnessed sentencing would have been true justice providing more belief throughout the world.

Speaking of the world….My other issue in all of this as it being a United States victory.  Yes, Usama Bin Laden was at the top of the FBI most wanted, but he was also at the top of the world’s most wanted.  This man did not just terrorize the United States, he terrorized every country in the world.  It may have been an American that pulled the trigger, but the victory belongs to the world.  Furthermore, this is only a minor victory.  The head has been cut off, but this species of snake has a way of continuing on and growing a new head.

True victory will come in the form of real world peace.  This will only come when we, as human beings (and yes the terrorists are also human beings) begin to accept each other and our differences and find common ground.  There are those who may say there is no common ground between Al Qaeda and the rest of the world.  But there is one thing we all have in common, WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS.  Just because we have different skin color and beliefs doesn’t mean we are unworthy of each other.

There was a line in a song in the movie Oklahoma that keeps running through my mind, “I’m not saying that I’m better than anybody else, but I’ll be danged if I ain’t just as good”.

True justice isn’t necessarily served when one man (even if sanctioned by the leader of a nation) takes the life of the one being sought.  And one nation has no right to claim personal victory when the capture (or killing) of a terrorist belongs to the entire world.

Peace

To start, let me specify that I am not using this post to bash religions nor religion in general.  Neither am I trying to sway anyone to believe a certain way, nor open up to a challenge/debate on religion.  However, of the five major world religions, Buddhism, Catholicism,  Christianity, Judaism; only two are not laden with controversy.  I have written blog posts, essays and poems regarding world peace and it never fails that I receive at least two comments telling me that “only G-d can bring peace” or “there will be no true peace till Jesus comes again”.  I sit and ponder which g-d they are speaking of and what religion has to do with what I have written about peace.

In the core of each of the aforementioned religions is the stress for peace.  But with all the controversy and turmoil surrounding three of the five, I find it difficult to see their message of peace.  I am not judging and I do not aver that the actions of some make it the way of the whole.  However, when those actions are so negative, they tent to put a cloud over any good that could be done.

In the United States, especially here in the ‘Bible Belt’, it is supposed to be a good thing to say you attend church or are a christian.  I wrote an essay a while back addressing two christian groups.  One in the US and the other in the UK.  These groups protest poets and writers just because they don’t like what is written, especially when the writer writes against war.  They also go to airports and protest soldiers coming home from the war as well as protesting the funerals of five young girls killed in a car accident on a rainy night driving home from a football game.

I have personally seen church people and Christians judgmentally taunt people for their beliefs and lifestyles because they differ from their own and what they teach.I have often heard the statement made in churches that they “love the sinner, hate the sin”.  Yet they treat those they call sinners in an ill manner when they don’t conform and give up said sins.

I am trying to see the peace through the cloud.

For decades, Catholicism has dealt with its own issues.  One of the biggest issues is the allegations of sexual abuse of children by the priests.  Most recently it is alleged that the pope has known about specific allegations and buried the information.  Priests take vows of celibacy and break those vows to have sex with boys and women.  I was always taught that when you make a promise, you keep it.  Especially if you make the promise to G-d.

If the leaders are discontent, how can I see the peace?

You don’t have to go far these days or do much research to find anything negative regarding Islam.  members of Islam are ever being suspected and blamed for terrorism around the world.  All a person has to do is look the part or be seen attending a mosque and they are suspect.  Not long ago a man in the United States Army went on a shooting spree at a military base.  As soon as it was said he is a practicing Muslim the media went wild that it was an act of terrorism.  I wrote about this and had stated it appeared to be PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).  As soon as the authorities came to the same conclusion I did, the media dropped it.

The other day I watched a piece on 60 Minutes.  They profiled a woman who had been a CIA agent.  The woman, originally from Lebanon, came to the United States as a teenager.  She made no secret of her past and had to undergo many stringent background checks to be employed by the FBI and the CIA.  After many years of service she was scrutinized for her place of birth and her (dis)connection to her sister’s husband.  It was later determined that she was NOT a terrorist.  She still lost her job and all she had worked for and was even dubbed in the media as “Jihad Jane”.  I foresee a return to the McCarthy Trials.

With suspicion and a select group terrorizing the world in the name of G-d, I can’t see the peace.

Thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, I have friends of different religious views including those who are Atheist.  Many years ago I was asking friends what they truly believe and why.  One person accused me of only asking like-minded people.  I had only begun seeking, but after this gentleman made his harsh comments, I quit asking.  I just wanted to know what other peoples views were.  I wish I had kept going.  I have one friend now who kind of jokes that he has taken parts of various religions to get to what he likes.  He does always seem to be at peace.  Well, except when his computer eats his music.

I once heard (or read) where someone said, “Prayer is you talking to G-d.  Meditation is G-d talking to you”.  Most religions are about praying.  To me that translates to us making petitions and doing the talking.  When do we listen?  Before I got sick, I loved hiking and spending time in nature.  I felt closer to my creator at these times and did some good writing during and after these hikes (sometimes during long drives in the mountains, too, just listening and feeling).  These days I feel most at peace during meditation.

The veil of controversy is thick with regard to many religions and therefore I find difficulty finding the peace they claim to have and disperse.  For me, I seek and research to draw my own conclusions.  I don’t debate them, but will answer any legitimate questions asked of me.  As for world peace, I still believe it will only come by  understanding and accepting each person without bias or prejudice.