The Killing Game

Tonight, while watching a baseball game between the N.Y. Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies, I got the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan. As news began to circulate around the ballpark, chants of U-S-A ... U-S-A rose from the 42,000 in attendance. I found this to be deeply disturbing. Don't get me wrong, I love my country as much as the next person, and I understand that Osama Bin Laden was a terribly dangerous and vicious person. But to my way of thinking, there is simply something profoundly wrong about the idea of cheering the death of another human being, no matter how vicious, barbaric or heartless that person might have been.

There is a certain irony about the fact that I received this news while watching a baseball game. It seems that on a worldwide scale, killing has been reduced to a game. Let me explain what I mean by that. I vividly recall on several occasions having seen news reports that showed video footage of people living in other countries who hated America dancing, waving their national flags and cheering in celebration of the tragic loss of American lives. They were cheering the "point" that they had scored in the killing game. I remember feeling a great sense of revulsion as I watched those spectacles. I remember asking myself, "where is their humanity?" I don't know that I actually spoke the words, but I thought to myself that we in America were better than that. I thought to myself that we understood the sanctity of life, any life, no matter how wretched. I thought that this was what made us better than them. But tonight as I watched the cheering of a human death both at the ballpark and outside of the White House, as I watched them dance and wave their signs, I realized that I could have been mistaken. Perhaps we were not better than that. We had scored a point in the killing game and the crowd was going crazy. I realize that in a country that values patriotism or nationalism (whichever you choose to call it) so highly, that I surly stand in the minority, but I think that we need to see to it that we put humanity ahead of nationalism.

I have watched many television programs that have reported the stories of police officers who have had to kill suspects in the line of duty. These dead suspects were not nice people. They were murderers, robbers and rapists and in almost every case they had tried to kill the officers themselves. Almost every one of those officers expressed a deep sense of regret at having been forced to take a human life. Make no mistake. I believe that we can be happy that a dangerous threat has been neutralized, and yes, I believe that killing bin Laden was absolutely necessary. However I do not see any difference between the pictures of Americans cheering bin Laden's death and the pictures of those from other countries cheering the death of an American. The only possible justification is they did it first. I get it, someone punches you in the nose ... you pop him right back. You protect you and yours, While I feel that in some cases, including this one, retaliation is an appropriate justification for the taking of a life, I do not see any valid justification for cheering the loss of life, any life ... no matter how vile.

The taking of a human life should be a job not unlike informing a family that a loved one has died. If it is your job, you have to do it, but under no circumstances is its completion to be cheered, not even if it is your most bitter of enemies. I believe that by cheering the loss of human life, we lower ourselves; we allow our humanity to erode. We have jumped into the killing game with both feet and this, for me is a sad byproduct of what was a necessary but unpleasant task. I am satisfied and relieved that a job that had to be done did get done, and at the same time I pray that we regain a bit of our lost humanity.