The world, and our children, are watching

I was saddened to hear about an impromptu rally, organized by Grand Junction City Councilwoman Janet Rowland, that was held earlier this evening, to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden.  We are still a nation in mourning.  We mourn for those who were lost on September 11, 2001.  We mourn for all of the families who lost their loved ones, children who have grown up without a mother or father, husbands and wives who became widows, mothers and fathers who suffered the horrible and unnatural fate of having a child die before them.  We mourn the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, serving a country whose leaders chose war.  I think most of all, though, we mourn the loss of our sense of safety and security.  We mourn and we are angry.

Angry enough to celebrate death.

Celebrating death, even the death of one who caused many other deaths is misguided and unnatural.

Instead of celebrating the death of a man who was troubled and inspired to unfortunate action by a chain of events that goes back many years and which we cannot even begin to understand, let us be somber as is fitting and proper.  Let us be somber in the face of so much death and violence and let us feel compassion for all those who have been placed in the unfortunate position of taking lives these past 10 years, including those whose job it was to take the life of Osama Bin Laden and those who had to give them the orders to do so.  Let us be somber and not rejoice in the death of another.  Let us be somber and teach our children that all life is precious and that being patriotic is not synonymous with supporting war or celebrating death.  Most of all, let us show our children and all of the citizens of the countries around the world, who must surely be watching us with critical and questioning eyes at this moment, that we are appropriately somber and respectful in the face of the death of one whose ideas, actions, and leadership led to the loss of so many lives all over the world.