May 1st 2011

My personal feelings are very ambivalent in regard to Osama Bin Laden's death. A part of me was initially glad to hear of the news, yet, I was reminded of not only Mahatma Gandhi's words, "an eye for eye, makes the whole world blind" but also of the words written in the Bible, both in Proverbs 24:17 (Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles) and in Romans 12:14-21 and the words spoken my Martin Luther King, "Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love"

Plainly but it, I am a "hopeful janet" I hope for world peace. A world where everyone can love and be at peace with one another. I know its optimistic, but I can have my hope, right?

On that note of optimism, I also ask, why do we, as the the American people, have to endure grief in order to come together to love our community and our country. President Obama, in his address to the nation tonight said these word,
On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family. Why did we need to experience such devastation to come together nearly ten years ago and why does the death of one person today, unite us?

Why can't we come together in general, to love and serve each other in all that we do, throughout all that we do, every day of our lives?