Hating Osama, missing the mark
It hung there on the wall as if the owner were stating “I’d kill him right now if he came in my door.” The large wounds in the black mass of the Osama bin Laden human-form target revealed the paint on the wall underneath, like white blood on the black body. “For what this man did, he deserves to die,” the man who hung the target seemed to say, “and I’d happily kill him right now.” The crimes of September 11 rank among the deadliest and most despicable terrorist attacks ever and those who planned them should be punished accordingly. This target, still hanging three years after the attacks, made me wonder what I would do if I had the opportunity this would-be marksman seemed to wish for.
In the post-September 11th world, bin Laden has had the dubious honor of joining the ranks of Adolph Hitler, Jeffery Dahmer, Caligula, Joseph Stalin, Jack the Ripper, Saddam Hussein, and Diocletian as one of history’s blackest, most notorious murders. Like the others in this infamous club, bin Laden’s name has become synonymous with that of ultimate evil incarnate-Satan. Remember the internet hoax immediately following the attacks that featured an evil, ghostly image in the black smoke billowing from the burning towers? The president consistently casts his rhetoric concerning the War on Terrorism in terms of black and white, good vs. evil. Vote for Bush, he’ll protect us from the “evildoers.” Is bin Laden so contemptible that he is worth only a bullet to the head and joyful celebrations of his death?
When we demonize the members of Club Evildoer, we strip them of their humanity. Just as Hitler stripped the Jews of their humanity and exterminated them, bin Laden stripped it from the Americans in the World Trade Center and we strip it from those who commit such acts. Having stripped the “evildoer” bin Laden of his inherent humanity, we are free to kill him in cold blood, with a smile of satisfaction.
Bin Laden’s is still a human face. Humanity is our most basic characteristic; it is what binds us all together, as members of the same species. Murdering bin Laden in effigy dehumanizes that image, stripping it of all similarity to ourselves, just as Hitler and Diocletian did with the Jews and Christians. Rather than saving the world, hating and murdering bin Laden causes us to loose sight of our shared humanity, only endangering it more.
Brandon Holcomb
Graduate Assistant
The Colonnade
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 8 2004. Filed under Opinion.
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