One nation. Under God. Incelebration. 5 thoughts on the assassination of Osama bin Laden.

“Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles; do not let your heart rejoice.” – Proverbs 24:17*

I had a blog written for today that I’m not going to post for obvious reasons.  I decided to shut down the kitchen because there was no use trying to compete with the news.  See, we here at Biscuits and Gravy don’t particularly care to blog about topics in the news.  Rather, I’d prefer to share my philosophies on life and provide a different way of looking at certain situations that people often take for granted.  But just as I was about to go to sleep, I decided to turn on the TV one last time because Twitter told me that Obama was speaking.  And even if I don’t always agree with what the man is saying, I do enjoy listening to him speak.  So after the president left the podium and walked back to his chambers all swagified-like, the news flashed to scenes outside the White House of folks celebrating and chanting, “USA!  USA!  USA!”

Oh, we’re taking shots today?  Champagne?  Cocaine?  A stripper named Shame?  I’m not sure from where the last two came, but I’ll take them all the same.

It was at this point that I started generating some blogworthy ideas and figured if I can’t beat ‘em, might as well join ‘em and contribute my thoughts on the matter.  After all, I’m inherently contrarian so I’m bound to have some fringe opinions.  For starters,

I’m not sure if this is good or bad.

I mean, I recognize why this is so important and “good”, but I feel like the number one priority for any government is national security.  And while it would seem as though having assassinated America’s public enemy number one would bring about a greater sense of relief and security to this nation, I know I’m not alone when I say that I don’t feel anymore safe today than I did last week.  I work in a rather sensitive area, and I won’t lie that I was a little hesitant about coming in today.  Of course, I’m here now and everything is kosher.  But my guess is that we’ll all have a heightened sense of alertness when it comes to detecting potential “extremists’ retaliations”.  Either way, whether this news is ultimately good or bad,

Obama had better be right.

Because if he’s wrong, not only can he kiss any reelection hopes goodbye, but he’ll also have to start worrying about impeachment.  Now, I doubt he’s wrong.  From what I understand, this operation was months in the making and they’ve gone through great lengths to validate that it was in fact Osama bin Laden they killed.  I also think this president is intelligent enough not fabricate details of such severity.  Oh, yes.  Shots fired.  But don’t worry, that round is on the house.  Speaking of presidents,

What does George W. Bush have to do with this?

Like I mentioned previously, I first found out this news via twitter.  #Oomf was tweeting thoughts of her own and retweeting those of her friends giving Bush a high five for the assassination.  I’m not going to copy and paste these tweets because they’ll surely be taken out of context.  I just want to go on record saying that their sentiments confused me.  I’m not sure what their exact sentiments are, but at the same time, I don’t know why “George W. Bush”, “props”, and “Osama Bin Laden” belong together in the same sentence.  This same follower also ended up at the White House to join in the celebrations.  Which brings me back to the scene from Pennsylvania Avenue where I saw

A lot of white folk in the crowd.

What does race have to do with any of this, you ask.  Nothing really.  Except I remember being outside the White House when Obama won the 2008 election.  And although there were white people in the audience then, there were also Indians, Asians, Hispanics, and Blacks†.  I just find it ironic that while Obama is in office, a large group of predominantly white celebrators (at least from what I could tell from the footage) convened themselves outside the White House to chant “USA!  USA!  USA!”  But yet, while Bush was in office, a large group celebrators from various ethnic backgrounds gathered themselves outside the White House to chant “Obama!”, “yes, we can!”, and “yes, we did!”  One of the things from November 4^th, 2008 that I specifically remember thinking was, “Why I am out here?  Obama’s not home.  At least, not yet.  What the fµck does Bush care that I’m rejoicing on his lawn right now?”  There’s nothing really to that.  Just an ironic thought.  But with all that being said,

Why are we even celebrating right now?

Somebody just got assassinated.  Somebody died.  We’re celebrating death.  I know this individual was hated, and that we declared him our enemy and thus it was appropriate that we capture him and/or bring him down.  I understand he was the mastermind behind 9/11.  I get all that.  But why the celebrations?  When we won WWII, we were celebrating victory.  Our enemy was wholly defeated.  But where is the victory here?  Are we not still in a war against terror?  Do any of you actually feel safer?

Let’s be honest, 9/11 didn’t come from nowhere.  Sure, we may have been “surprised”, but anybody who thinks that al-Qaida just up and decided to attack the United States for no reason is incredibly naïve.  Obama—and even Bush in his released statement—both used the word “justice” in response to this achievement.  And indeed, justice has been served…for America.  But before I’m American, before I’m black, before I’m white, and before I’m a man, I am a human first.  And I can’t definitively say that justice has been served for humans or humanity.

There exist still a number of terrorist factions in the world, and even if they can’t exact “revenge” on the United States, it’s not beyond belief that they will exact revenge whenever and wherever they can.  Are we not responsible for the lives of any innocent bystanders who share the brunt of eventual retaliations?  Where does it stop?  And for that matter, where did it even begin?  For us to achieve “justice” indicates that we’re the good guys.  And it’s very easy to feel this way from where I’m sitting.  After all, I do love this country.  And one of things I love about this country is that I can say all of what I’ve said and what I’m about to say “without persecution”.  But to say that we’ve achieved justice, and to insinuate that we’re the good guys, is to suggest that we’re innocent.  And looking at our history, I’m not so sure I can absolve ourselves from all the hatred we receive.  It’s almost like how we condemn Central Americans for illegally immigrating to this country while completely ignoring all of the legal injustices we imposed upon them that forced them (yes, forced) to risk life and limb for a chance at survival in this country in the first place.

I guess what I’m asking is are we really that good, or right, or just that we should rejoice in this occasion?  Because if we are, then why don’t I feel any safer?  Why don’t I feel like anything has been solved?  The only thing we’ve really achieved was revenge, and since when has vengeance ever been fruitful for the soul?

*I'm not very well versed in the Bible.  This very appropriate Proverb was suggested my dear friend, Crystal Marie from A Word Or Three.  You can check out her thoughts on the subject here.

†I’m not sure if “Black” should be capitalized, but all the other ones were and I didn’t want to leave anybody out J