I had no idea that I was going to feel the way I felt when I learned that Osama Bin Laden was dead. In the two year-old previous posting I even described how I had dealt with my darkest feelings on the matter.
I was euphoric, inside. Outside, I was composed. But then I'm a 44 year-old man with all the experiences that entails. Not the least of which is a quote I read some years back by Lao Tzu: "Conduct your victories as funerals." The notion being that inasmuch as you have won, consideration must be made for the one who has lost. In other words, Lao Tzu was advocating for empathy.
So it was with that in mind I watched as spontaneous celebrations erupted in Lafayette Park across from the White House and at the site where the Twin Towers once stood. Fairly immediately I remembered the image of Palestinians celebrating on the West Bank after 9/11. But also fairly immediately a surprised reporter made the comment that this war would have no VE Day or VJ Day. This was pretty much as close as it would get.
These were the two competing thoughts in my mind as I stayed up watching the celebrations on Sunday night. I wished I could be there but I also wished we could come up with a more original expression than chanting "U.S.A.!" I mean, it seemed so fresh and cool during the '80 Olympic Hockey victories. But now, it just seemed dated and played...to me.
The next morning I hear a sports radio show. One of the hosts was complaining about the celebrations on Sunday night. He considered them inappropriate. He mocked the college students. "What were they? Eight when it happened? Ten?"
Later in the day I see the posting for this article: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/05/02/osama_and_chants_of_usa on a friend's Facebook page. Eight people "liked" it. A few more of my friends had posted one word responses like "agreed", "yeah" and "ditto".
And in the time since, I 've heard and read more and more criticisms of the celebrations that broke out after the news on Sunday, including a pro football player's tweets expressing shame.
The article on my friend's Facebook prompted me to post the following comment:
I don't know...
If I had been in NYC last night, I would have gone to Ground Zero. I would
have preferred to not have all the cheering and chanting. But I would
have loved to see that place where, almost ten years ago, my wife would
have to ...go to work. Where she would see bodies being pulled out of the rubble.
Where there was a constant odor you didn't want to even think about
what it was. That place from where she came home every night so
depressed that I never thought she'd come out of it. I think I would
have liked seeing that place transformed into a place of joy for one
night. I would have been celebrating, but not death. Just closure and
connection.
Aside from my use of the word "closure" for lack of a better one, I feel like this was a concise and accurate description of my feelings. I saw an interview today with the former FDNY Commissioner. He made the comment that this event brings "closure to a compartment." I feel that was more what I meant.
This morning I woke up to this response from my friend who had posted the article:
"I here (sic) you Jack, and I agree. I think that's the sentiment of the article as well..."
I can certainly see how one can infer that I was sharing the same sentiment with David Sirota from what I posted, but it seems that being concise is not what is called for, because I do not agree with the article.
While it is true that it looks like David Sirota and I had the same personal response to the death of Osama Bin Laden, I do not consider the chanting of "U.S.A." to be "wrong." And the assertion that,..
"This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory: He has changed America’s psyche
from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act
into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in news of bloodshed."
...is ridiculous.
For as long as there have been major battle victories in this country, there have been spontaneous celebrations. Now whether we should be celebrating battle victories in such fashion, since many more than one person die in those, is another issue but my point is that Americans were celebrating such victories long before Al Qaeda, so the notion that we have become what we beheld is patently false.
And make no mistake about it, what happened in Abottabad on Sunday night was a battle and a major victory.
The terms of it were completely defined by Bin Laden himself. He set himself up as the symbol for Al Qaeda. He hid himself only to appear on tape as an harbinger for an attack. And he swore that he would not be taken alive.
I would also add that, for all his bravado, he was a cynical coward. He put himself in what he considered a win-win situation. He always surrounded himself with women and children. He always believed Americans didn't have the guts to attack him with ground troops. They would only drop a bomb if they found him. He would live or the bomb would kill so many innocents that Americans would look like monsters. He could care less about the safety of all those innocents. Coward.
He made himself the prime target of the war and he chose to make his death the objective for victory.
I certainly consider the end of such a man to be cause for celebration.
Secondly, I take issue with that radio host and others who criticized the youth of most of the celebrants.
Yes, probably a great many of them were eight and ten on 9-11-01. For instance, my niece and nephew were that age. And even though they were in North Carolina, they were scared out of their minds with worry over my wife and me, who were in NYC.
I also remember that, as I walked to the 59th street bridge to meet my wife walking home from Ground Zero that day, I passed an elementary school. It was a warm day, so the windows were open and I could hear a principal on an intercom calling many names of students--the list was going on as I approached the school and continued past when I went out of earshot-- and instructing them to report to the office. Some were being picked up by their parents, but many were being picked up by relatives, who at that time weren't sure if their parents had made it out of Lower Manhattan yet.
And I would imagine there were millions more eight and ten year olds watching the horrific images on T.V. And I would also imagine that Bin Laden became an even bigger bogeyman to these children as they grew up than the nameless Soviets who were often the topics of discussion in the lunchrooms and playgrounds of my youth, as we discussed when and why they would drop an "Atom Bomb" on us.
My nephew, niece, the children of that school, the millions more. Bin Laden gave them all nightmares.
Although I wouldn't have done it, I don't begrudge any of those young people one moment of their chants of "U.S.A." To paraphrase Seinfeld, their choice of text didn't offend my sensibilities as a person, they offended my sensibilities as an artist.
But more than anything else, I don't consider the boisterous nature of the celebrations or the chants as "wrong" because...
The members of Seal Team Six and all the other thousands of intelligence and military personel that made Abottabad happen aren't going to get ticker tape parades or even a public medal ceremony. We'll probably never even know their names. Although I hope we do. What they did was truly amazing. And I'm not just talking run of the mill amazing. We're talking MOON LANDING amazing here.
What Seal Team Six got was to return to their base, turn on a T.V. and see Americans filling the streets and chanting, "U.S.A.!, U.S.A!, U.S.A!" And it is all because of what they accomplished.
To tell you the truth, in that context, I'm no longer offended. I am enriched and invigorated by that image as a person AND as an artist.
I don't think David Sirota is right. The way we celebrated on Sunday is not what perpetuates the cycle of violence between our cultures. People are people and celebrate the way they celebrate. Artfully, inartfully, what have you. It is more the fact that we give over to our visceral reactions to those celebrations by our opponents before we ask why are they celebrating? Why would they be celebrating something that hurts us so deeply?
In the case of those Palestinians, I never was really that mad at them. I was certainly hurt but not mad. I recognized prettty early that the international game of "Telephone" that goes on between an even in New York and the West Bank is so filled with misinformation that they had no idea what was going on.
As far as Bin Laden is concerned. Richard Engel told the story yesterday of speaking to a middle class well -educated Libyan man who was upset about the strife in his country and critical of the West's involvement. Engel asked if that extended to the death of Bin Laden. The man had been unaware so Engel gave him the story. The man thought for a moment, then said, "Fuck Bin Laden."
J.A.L.
If I had been in NYC last night, I would have gone to Ground Zero. I would
have preferred to not have all the cheering and chanting. But I would
have loved to see that place where, almost ten years ago, my wife would
have to ...go to work. Where she would see bodies being pulled out of the rubble.
Where there was a constant odor you didn't want to even think about
what it was. That place from where she came home every night so
depressed that I never thought she'd come out of it. I think I would
have liked seeing that place transformed into a place of joy for one
night. I would have been celebrating, but not death. Just closure and
connection.
Aside from my use of the word "closure" for lack of a better one, I feel like this was a concise and accurate description of my feelings. I saw an interview today with the former FDNY Commissioner. He made the comment that this event brings "closure to a compartment." I feel that was more what I meant.
This morning I woke up to this response from my friend who had posted the article:
"I here (sic) you Jack, and I agree. I think that's the sentiment of the article as well..."
I can certainly see how one can infer that I was sharing the same sentiment with David Sirota from what I posted, but it seems that being concise is not what is called for, because I do not agree with the article.
While it is true that it looks like David Sirota and I had the same personal response to the death of Osama Bin Laden, I do not consider the chanting of "U.S.A." to be "wrong." And the assertion that,..
"This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory: He has changed America’s psyche
from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act
into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in news of bloodshed."
...is ridiculous.
For as long as there have been major battle victories in this country, there have been spontaneous celebrations. Now whether we should be celebrating battle victories in such fashion, since many more than one person die in those, is another issue but my point is that Americans were celebrating such victories long before Al Qaeda, so the notion that we have become what we beheld is patently false.
And make no mistake about it, what happened in Abottabad on Sunday night was a battle and a major victory.
The terms of it were completely defined by Bin Laden himself. He set himself up as the symbol for Al Qaeda. He hid himself only to appear on tape as an harbinger for an attack. And he swore that he would not be taken alive.
I would also add that, for all his bravado, he was a cynical coward. He put himself in what he considered a win-win situation. He always surrounded himself with women and children. He always believed Americans didn't have the guts to attack him with ground troops. They would only drop a bomb if they found him. He would live or the bomb would kill so many innocents that Americans would look like monsters. He could care less about the safety of all those innocents. Coward.
He made himself the prime target of the war and he chose to make his death the objective for victory.
I certainly consider the end of such a man to be cause for celebration.
Secondly, I take issue with that radio host and others who criticized the youth of most of the celebrants.
Yes, probably a great many of them were eight and ten on 9-11-01. For instance, my niece and nephew were that age. And even though they were in North Carolina, they were scared out of their minds with worry over my wife and me, who were in NYC.
I also remember that, as I walked to the 59th street bridge to meet my wife walking home from Ground Zero that day, I passed an elementary school. It was a warm day, so the windows were open and I could hear a principal on an intercom calling many names of students--the list was going on as I approached the school and continued past when I went out of earshot-- and instructing them to report to the office. Some were being picked up by their parents, but many were being picked up by relatives, who at that time weren't sure if their parents had made it out of Lower Manhattan yet.
And I would imagine there were millions more eight and ten year olds watching the horrific images on T.V. And I would also imagine that Bin Laden became an even bigger bogeyman to these children as they grew up than the nameless Soviets who were often the topics of discussion in the lunchrooms and playgrounds of my youth, as we discussed when and why they would drop an "Atom Bomb" on us.
My nephew, niece, the children of that school, the millions more. Bin Laden gave them all nightmares.
Although I wouldn't have done it, I don't begrudge any of those young people one moment of their chants of "U.S.A." To paraphrase Seinfeld, their choice of text didn't offend my sensibilities as a person, they offended my sensibilities as an artist.
But more than anything else, I don't consider the boisterous nature of the celebrations or the chants as "wrong" because...
The members of Seal Team Six and all the other thousands of intelligence and military personel that made Abottabad happen aren't going to get ticker tape parades or even a public medal ceremony. We'll probably never even know their names. Although I hope we do. What they did was truly amazing. And I'm not just talking run of the mill amazing. We're talking MOON LANDING amazing here.
What Seal Team Six got was to return to their base, turn on a T.V. and see Americans filling the streets and chanting, "U.S.A.!, U.S.A!, U.S.A!" And it is all because of what they accomplished.
To tell you the truth, in that context, I'm no longer offended. I am enriched and invigorated by that image as a person AND as an artist.
I don't think David Sirota is right. The way we celebrated on Sunday is not what perpetuates the cycle of violence between our cultures. People are people and celebrate the way they celebrate. Artfully, inartfully, what have you. It is more the fact that we give over to our visceral reactions to those celebrations by our opponents before we ask why are they celebrating? Why would they be celebrating something that hurts us so deeply?
In the case of those Palestinians, I never was really that mad at them. I was certainly hurt but not mad. I recognized prettty early that the international game of "Telephone" that goes on between an even in New York and the West Bank is so filled with misinformation that they had no idea what was going on.
As far as Bin Laden is concerned. Richard Engel told the story yesterday of speaking to a middle class well -educated Libyan man who was upset about the strife in his country and critical of the West's involvement. Engel asked if that extended to the death of Bin Laden. The man had been unaware so Engel gave him the story. The man thought for a moment, then said, "Fuck Bin Laden."
J.A.L.
