Thoughts on the death of Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden is dead and gone. Been thinking a lot about this truth since Sunday.  Still not quite sure how or what to conclude but this: my personal discomfort at the level of “celebration”, even giddiness, at his violent death. Snarky newspaper headlines like “Rot In Hell”. Late night chant filled rallies. I am heartened that the threat he represented is gone.  But I do pray that the hate he represented is not equally met with the same force of hate.  As a Christian, I remain convinced that in the end only love can overcome the worst that evil throws our way.  In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”  In Ghandi’s words, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”