It just amazes me how fickle Americans are.  We will look for any excuse to sing Kumbaya.  Osama Bin Laden is dead, and America is having a feel good moment.  “Justice has been done,” said President Barak Obama, who  announced that he gave the go-ahead for the elite SEAL Team 6 to go in and kill Osama Bin Laden. And America couldn’t wait to celebrate.

Yesterday, people were partying in the streets, waving flags, wearing flags, kissing and hugging.  One guy said that it was a great time to be an American.  One woman said that we always come through in the end, and no matter what, Americans always come together (which America is she talking about?).  One woman, however, took the grand prize for the Most Uber-Optimistic and Over Exaggerated Comment In The World.  This lady said that tonight she doesn’t have to sleep in fear; tonight she can sleep in peace.  Say what?

Maybe it’s just me, but the last time I looked, nobody in my neighborhood had to worry about getting jacked by Osama Bin Laden.  Last time I looked Osama Bin Laden wasn’t selling crack or meth in my neighborhood.  Last time I looked Osama Bin Laden wasn’t lurking around some elementary school in my neighborhood waiting to molest some little girl or boy.  Last time I looked Osama Bin Laden wasn’t teaching my children that they are descended from a monkey.  And when my car alarm goes off in the middle of the night, I’ve never expected to go out there and have to confront Osama Bin Laden.

Don’t get me wrong.  For the people who are survivors of 9/11 or who lost loved ones in the Twin Towers, I understand that this must give them some much-needed closure.  But to say that this man’s purported death just eliminated all fear and worry from your life is maybe going a little bit too far.

Let me help you put this in perspective.  Today, a Virginia couple has been charged with the murder of one of their children, whose body police found buried underneath their home.  But that’s not all.  They found the body after police interrogated the couple subsequent to finding their six-year-old daughter, who the couple had been keeping in a makeshift cage since last summer.  The girl was so malnourished, that she was EATING HER OWN SKIN to stay alive.  That’s right.  Eating her own skin.  She was also lying in her own feces and was covered with bedsores.  The couple said they treated the child this way because she had Down’s Syndrome and other problems.  Now you tell me.  What did Osama Bin Laden’s death do for that little girl?  Yet everybody’s acting like the world just became a happy place.

It reminds me of the story of the man who leaped from a very high building.  As he was passing the twentieth floor, someone asked him how things were going.  “Fine, so far,” he said.  Put away your party hats, folks.  We are only just passing the twentieth floor, and the ground’s coming up pretty fast.

Sleep well.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.