As most of you know, Bid Laden is dead. There's celebration outside the White House. There's celebration all across the world. People are generally happy he's dead. I'm still in shock right now. Like many others, Bin Laden- this strange, monster-like name- has been a source of horror in the U.S. for most of my life. He's changed the way we work and live day to day. I never really thought he would die. He seemed so... immortal like. He was the American boogeyman, our nightmare, and not really a human. And now he's dead, his body is in American possession, but I'm not happy. I'm thinking.
He's human. Yes, he killed thousands of Americans in a single, terrible, heart breaking day that will be a stain on our history for years to come. That stain isn't a battle in war, but the blood of innocents who simply headed to work that normal September day. I give my heart to the people who lost friends, family and loved ones on 9-11. And I don't mean to insult the victims, or degrade their memory.
I don't hate Bin Laden. He was a man, just like us, across the world. He was raised differently. He was raised to believe that we were the enemy. What if we were born that way? We would believe the exact same, just as we were raised to believe he was the enemy. Yes, he killed 2600 innocents, but over the last 10 years, how many innocents have we killed? Is it anymore right? There was been so much wrongful, tragic death over the 10 years, not only because of what Bin Laden did, but also because how Americans reacted. I don't think we are morally superior, and just like I don't hate Bin Laden for his actions, I don't hate America for its actions. I simply want us to leave this behind us. So many innocents have been killed. Just as a child wakes up in the morning without his mother here, a child in the middle east wakes up without his father. Bin Laden's family is now missing a father, a son, an uncle. Just as a mother looks at a picture of her dead son, a mother on the opposite side of the planet mourns hers. Our pain is the same, our losses cut just as deep.
Let's look past this violent 10 years, and over all, let's see this as an event to be able to embrace the people we've hated and feared for so long. Bid Laden is dead, but we are not safe. The war is not over. His death will not bring back to life those who died.
And that's why I'm not mourning, but I'm not celebrating. It's a full circle. 10 years ago, terrorists celebrated as the twin towers fell. 10 years later, we celebrate as they lose their leader. Just like a circle, this violent acts do not have an end. Who loses next? How many times will either side strike back just to lose all over again? And who is right? We will never know. Does it matter?
Today we lost a man. Today, history has taken an ironic twist. Today is just another day, if we let this become an act of revenge rather than a tool of peace. Please, if you celebrate his death, do not be happy solely because of death, but because now, maybe, we are one step closer to keeping another mother from losing her child. We can achieve peace. Take the momentum- snatch it in our fists, and use today to swerve the course of history.
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