Ramblings.

I have had about a thousand thoughts swirling around in my head today. Seriously, who could blame me though given the events conspiring both locally & internationally. Some of them are exciting & others can be considered nothing short of terrifying. Already in 2011, we've seen violence in Egypt, Libya, and the Middle East as a whole, a massive history-making earthquake in Japan, a Royal wedding, tornadoes & flooding throughout the entire South, & the Grizzlies making a name for themselves in the post season of the NBA.

Now, we have something new to add to the list: the death of Osama bin Laden. I, like the rest of America should have been, was on the edge of my seat last night waiting to see what the President had to say. I was almost moved to tears by his speech & the live footage of various places in America rejoicing for this moment in history. My first instinct, of course, was celebratory. The man who was chieftly responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians had been brought to justice! Finally the families of those who were affected by September 11th & the resulting war that has plagued our country for 10 years could feel some closure.

After this initial feeling though came remorse. Why was I celebrating the death of anyone - even someone who represented such evil? Think back to 2011. I remember, even as a 13 year old, feeling such anger by the footage of the groups in the Middle East rejoicing that they had killed so many Americans & had "taken us down a notch." Why would you ever cheer over the death of anyone?? Then, last night, in a less extreme way the tables were turned. We, as Americans, could be seen all over the country cheering because our act of violence ended lives.

Now, I'm most certainly not saying that killing Osama was wrong. He was a horrible man responsible for so. much. evil. You could even go as far as to say that killing him could mean that we stopped him from accomplishing even more.

I will say this though. I do not believe that Osama's death will bring us instant peace... In fact, it would be far reaching to say that it is even a stepping stone to peace. What it simply means is that we have finally made progress in the war against terrorism. And who wouldn't like to feel that our efforts for the last 10 years hasn't been done in vain... that it has reaped at least some success.

I guess it's ok to feel all emotions with Osama's death - both relief & remorse. I liked this quote I read today in an article:

" If we have any feeling of victory or triumph in this case, it should be because we have succeeded in disabling him - not because he is dead."

It almost sums up my feeling exactly. On a side note, props to Obama for his usage of the one nation UNDER GOD reference as well as his wish that God bless our country. Let us never forget that is is by His grace that we are where we are today. To take His will & our country's Christian faith out of the equation is NEVER ok.

Whew. I'm certanly FULL of opinions today. Here's one that I'm not torn about at all:

GO GRIZZ GO!!!!