A Lesson from the Death of Osama bin Laden

I should have submitted this post some time ago, but it is better late than never.  The following text very aptly illustrates my feelings on the assassination of bin Laden and the resulting jubilation of many people in this country, but I wanted to make an additional point with this picture of Jesus hugging bin Laden.

One meditation or reflection that I sometimes use in my yoga classes is to invite people to close their eyes and then visualize any person in the world (living or dead) whom they find to be extremely spiritual, holy, pious, wise, etc.  After reflecting on this person and the feelings they associate with him or her, I then tell y students that, on the deepest level of Soul, they are exactly the same as that person!  Then (to further blow some minds), I invite them to visualize any person in the world (living or dead) whom they find to be evil, ignorant, loathesome, cruel, etc.  After reflecting on this person and the feelings they associate with him or her, I finish by telling my students that the ”evil” person, the “good” person and they themselves are ALL EXACTLY EQUAL on the level of Soul!

We are ALL Divine sparks of God.  Any apparent divisions are just products of our human minds in this human experience which we call life.  A being such as Jesus, who realized this Truth on the deepest level, would not hesitate to hug Osama bin Laden and say, “All is forgiven.”

Sat Nam,

Jim Earles

By PATRICK O’NEILL

GARNER — The murder of Osama bin Laden — Oh wait, I should not use
that word to describe the pre-meditated killing of the world’s most
wanted man, who had his head blown off May 1 under the direction of
the President of the United States of America, a nation that prides
itself in governing by the rule of law. Oh, I forgot, the
Constitutional principles that once undergirded U.S. actions have been
in abeyance since Sept. 11, 2001.

Under the “new” rules, it’s perfectly excusable when my government
tells blatant lies (See N&O’s huge May 2 banner headline “Bin Laden
killed in firefight” or the report that he used his wife as a shield.)
So what if a team of assassins woke him up in the middle of the night
and executed the unarmed bin Laden in his PJs. After all, public enemy
No. 1 deserves whatever he gets. His wife, also unarmed, was shot as
well. Was bin Laden shot in the back of the head, execution style? Who
knows the truth? His body was conveniently disposed of without
autopsy. The only word we have is from those we know to be liars.

The reaction of Americans to bin Laden’s killing has been one of the
moral low points in our nation’s history; it ranks up there with the
national jubilation in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Japan.
Joy is the word that best describes the general reaction of Americans
to the extra judicial murder of a man who allegedly masterminded the
9-11 attacks. Progressive publications are also aligned with the
status quo. Locally, The Independent Weekly ran a political cartoon
showing bin Laden falling through a trap door in Hell with the
caption: “Wow! I never knew this place even had a basement!” Media
columnist for The Nation, Eric Alterman wrote: “The killing of Osama
bin Laden was a just and necessary undertaking.” Even clergy have
jumped on the joy-killing bandwagon. N&O syndicated “God Squad”
columnist, Rabbi Marc Gellman wrote of bin Laden’s killing, “I’m joyed
but not exactly overjoyed.” Overjoyed is apparently for the
non-clerical among us. ”Love your enemies,” holds no sway here.

In my daughter Moira’s Catholic morality class, killing an unarmed bad
guy rather than allowing him his day in court didn’t raise any strong
objections for teenage Christians or their instructor, Moira reported.
The Vatican statement in response to bin Laden’s killing was also
lacking. Vatican Director of the Holy See Press Office, P. Federico
Lombardi, wrote: “Osama Bin Laden – as everyone knows – has had the
gravest responsibility for spreading hatred and division among people,
causing the deaths of countless people, and exploiting religion for
this purpose.

“Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but
reflects on the serious responsibility of everyone before God and man,
and hopes and pledges that every event is not an opportunity for a
further growth of hatred, but of peace.”

What gives the Vatican the right “as everyone knows” to make claims
about bin Laden being responsible for “causing the deaths of countless
people” even though he never faced charges or a trial for his alleged
crimes?

It’s easy to prosecute low-profile bad guys under the rule of law,
and adhere to the theory in U.S. jurisprudence that justice is blind.
But the divide between judicial theory and practice has become
meaningless in the aftermath of 9-11. With endless undeclared wars,
drone attacks, secret prisons and torture-as-common-practice, it seems
U.S. officials no longer even bother to claim that we are any
different than the enemies we demonize.

Of course, the U.S. positions itself as above international law
anytime we’re accused of violating it, which is what we do every time
we engage in military attacks in Pakistan, where we sent our
assassination team to kill bin Laden. A dangerous and unstable nuclear
power, Pakistan may be the most dangerous nation in the world. What
anti-American backlash will we face for yet another violation of
Pakistan’s sovereignty?

Without accountability from her citizens, the United States, which can
only be described as a lawless nation, will surely not do the right
thing. Why the silence? The intentional, premeditated, murder of bin
Laden has diminished our humanity and diminished us as a nation. It
has only served to feed our blood lust for revenge, while giving us
another reason to form a mob to chant, “U.S.A, U.S.A.” in our streets.

Self-righteous and rarely curious, Americans would rather believe that
the zealots who carried out the 9-11 attacks hated us for our freedoms
than to consider the possibility that much of bin Laden’s criticism of
U.S. Middle East policy is simply the truth.