When I heard that Bin Laden had been assinated by the US Seal team 6, I was not surprised. Live by the sword, die by the sword. It did not seem surprising that he had come to a violent death or that my government had hunted him down till they had killed him. It was however sad to me that there was more killing, and that the US had violated International Law by entering another sovereign nation without their permission to do this. It was worrisome to me that we continue to erode boundaries in the world with the justification of revenge - and what will the long term effects of eroded boundaries be?
But far more disturbing was my fellow citizens response of jubilation, celebrations in the street, off color jokes, calls to print gruesome pictures of his dead body with part of his head blown off. Most Quakers have this experience of having a minority response to events in the world - especially those involving violence and war. However, we do not normally expect to get to have our say about those things.
To my surprise however I was contacted by a host of a public radio show looking for diverse (and I think she hoped non-vengeful responses) to Bin Laden's death. So today I was on the radio representing a Quaker response to his death. If you wish to listen you can stream the audio here: http://kbcsweb.bellevuecollege.edu/playlist/archive/?ShowID=19173#
Peace, Lynn
