Rethinking Violence

Yesterday, Osama Bin Laden's death was announced to us by our president. Obama's speech was a carefully structured string of sentiments that was meant to calm our nation's fears, denounce the enemy that took the lives of our people, and ultimately, reaffirm the US as the greatest country in the entire world. I will make no secret of how I feel about our president, despite all of his shortcomings, I have the utmost respect and hope for his vision as our leader. Yet, the death of Bin Laden and the reaction of our country is still a bit alarming. A close friend of mine lost his father on September 11, 2001, he was a firefighter who sacrificed his life to save others. My friend believes justice has been done with the death of Bin Laden.

I stumbled upon this quote in many of my friend's facebook statuses, blogs, twitters, etc:

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." --Martin Luther King Jr.

Besides the fact that this quote was actually never spoken by MLK, I tend to appreciate the meaning. I won't lie, I also have personally rejoiced in the death of this horrible person that took so many innocent lives. But more and more, I think of how this momentous murder is acting as a sort of huge billboard advertisement for militarization, violence, and murder itself. There are so many controversies today that center around the very validity of violence: the death penalty, Guantanamo Bay, the use of drones, and our own imperialist foreign policy, and yet the threat of normalizing violence is still underreported. Our lives our becoming militarized more and more every day, so much so that we don't even realize or care. But we should! As an American, I have the privilege of living in peace; I don't have to be scared to walk outside, or be fearful of the safety of my loved ones. But as a feminist, I know that the militarization of our everyday lives is extremely connected to the structure of patriarchy that dominates the US, so much so that it is actually perpetuating this structure of inequality. Promoting violence as a means to achieve peace seems quite contradictory, yet it hasn't been seen that way by the majority of our leaders, past and present. Despite all this, I still struggle with this moment in history. Bin Laden's death won't bring back all those who died because of him, but still there's some feeling of relief associated with his murder that I can't shake, and it is this internalization of violence that makes me nervous about the future of our country.