Monday, May 02, 2011

In Reply: Grave-dancing

"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." - MLK Jr Jessica Dovey

Revised and extended, slightly, in reply to the following comment at the Lawyers, Guns & Money post It sounds as if Bin Laden may have been executed
Boudleaux says:
Since we are far enough through the looking glass that we even need to ask a Democratic President not to have American Citizens killed without any shred of due process, it is well too much to ask that any kind of “rule of law” stuff start with Bin Laden himself.

Other than that, I have small children, and I have yet to derive a clear picture in my mind of how to justify being happy someone got killed, no matter who it is.

Easter was an occasion for them to begin wrapping their minds around the fact that the Romans executed people. And that we do also. I’ll have to ease them into the notion of grave-dancing.

May 2, 2011 at 8:48 am
Boudleaux, you're obviously not one of them he-man, kill-'em-all, let-God-sort-'em-out, REAL Americans...

Me, neither. I had a similar reaction to the celebrations. I'm not unhappy that they guy is dead, or even that it happened the way it did, but I just don't have it in me to pop open the champagne (or a beer, even) and start chanting U-S-A!!, U-S-A!!, (or anything else) no matter who gets killed.

Everyone involved (the military, and folks working during both administrations) deserve our thanks and credit, but I won't be whipping out my Kool and The Gang CDs or the mirrored disco ball as a result of their accomplishment...
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Posted May 2, 2011 at 11:36 am (LGM blog time)
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Added, 5/3/11: Anatomy of a Fake Quotation - Megan McArdle. How a woman expressing a simple "No Grave-dancing" sentiment accidentally put folks in a tizzy, via the awesome power of the internet.

Others:
memeorandum
"USA! USA!" is the wrong response - War Room - Salon.com
While the doughy pantload didn't get it, many of his commenters (fellow rightwingers, y'all) did: The Dumbest Reaction to Bin Laden’s Death So Far - By Jonah Goldberg - The Corner - National Review Online
Complications after a night of jubilation - The Washington Post
Gregory Rodriguez from ground zero: America reboots | Opinion L.A. | Los Angeles Times
Searching for Meaning in Bin Laden’s Death | FDL News Desk

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