Quotes Tweeted and Facebooked Post-Osama
“I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
-~Martin Luther King, Jr. (Note: Possibly Bogus)
“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I’ve read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
-–Mark Twain
“I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
–Ezekiel 33:10
“For all the people out there scolding each other for various emotional reactions, I have this to say: Stop it. There is no “right” way to feel. Americans were victimized by a horrible mass murder. A measure of justice has been dealt. People react how they react. Some people react with joy. Some with grief. Some with jokes. Some do all of the above. All feelings are just that, feelings. Stop trying to control it.”
–Amanda Marcotte
I have felt each of these throughout the twenty-four hours following the announcement U.S. forces finally found and killed Osama bin Laden. And that’s not counting the initial disbelief and laughter I expressed when my friend Patrick told me on the phone last night. Or the disturbingly quick partisan assessment I made that Obama is assured re-election (which upon further thought is not assured at all: witness Bush the Elder’s loss of Gulf War brownie points when he failed to take the recession of the early 90s seriously.) Today when Twitter turned into a debate about the sincerity of Rush Limbaugh’s remarks praising Obama’s role in taking bin Laden down, I decided I should just back away and throw up my hands.
I am glad bin Laden is no longer at large. I hope his demise does not make him a martyr, but seriously demoralizes his organization and all of the violent sociopaths he inspired. But don’t tell me justice was served. Too much blood has been spilled in the name of my country, with my tax dollars, at the sacrifice of my countryfolk and the uncounted deaths of thousands of innocent people around the world.
Edited to add the link to Megan Mcardle’s post on dubious MLK quote. Which just makes this that much weirder.
I actually have the exact skinny on the MLK quote. The first sentence is bogus, but the rest is an actual quote of MLK. This happened because some dude blogged the MLK quote with his own thoughts preceding it. The dude properly placed the the MLK quote in quote marks and left his own thoughts not in quote marks, but others then picked it up and mistakenly put quote marks around the whole thing.
Ah, I see Megan Mcardle got to it as well: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/anatomy-of-a-fake-quotation/238257/
Yeah, it’s weird how responses to big events like this play out. Often unpredictable — except for the cheering in the streets part, that was to be expected — but who knew misquoting Martin Luther King would be part of the drama?
I have to say that the celebrations gave me much the same feeling as hanging out with friends and acquaintances on 9/11. A bunch of us (predominately NYers) gathered at Holman’s Restaurant (if you know it) and were watching some of the news there in the late morning, and I immediately got a sinking feeling about what was coming based on the bloodthirsty reactions of people there. A premonition that was sadly more than born out. I have absolutely zero sympathy for bin Laden, but I felt like there was much the same bloodlust in the “USA! USA!” cheering for his death. Although I did see one vet of the Afghan war interviewed at one of the celebrations at the White House who said he was cheering because it was an opportunity to end the wars, so perhaps I’m misjudging the overall nature of the sentiment. I hope so.
On an instructive side note, another notorious terrorist died very recently. Peacefully in his hospital bed, sheltered by the US to the end: Orlando Bosch