Love-Hate Relationship...

Here's my perspective on the bin Laden assassination.

It will not be a popular point of view.

We teach our children that this country is governed by the rule of law.

One is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Osama bin Laden, allegedly, ordered the events of 9-11.

He was executed without a trial.

We talk about Jesus and how he preached love and forgiveness. Yet people all over the world are spontaneously gathering to cheer bin Laden's death.

Where's the forgiveness there?

I have no idea whether Osama bin Laden was involved in 9-11 or not. We may never know what the truth is.

There are some who think that the events of that day were the result of a conspiracy within our government and that the 3,000 plus individuals who died that day were "collateral damage" in an operation with a different intended outcome than that stated by Al Qaeda.

I have no idea.

But if, in fact, bin Laden was the person ultimately responsible for sending planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, then he, absolutely, should have been captured, tried and, if convicted, punished.

But to storm his compound and kill him is an act of revenge, pure and simple.

Sure, it may make a lot of people feel better but it demeans us a human beings.

I can't imagine what it must be like to have lost someone on 9-11. It must be truly horrible. My heart goes out to each and every one of them. And I suppose that I'd be cheering today too if someone I loved had died that day. But the cheers wouldn't bring them back and wouldn't make me a better man.

It makes us hypocrites if we talk about forgiveness and the rule of law on the one hand but cheer a man's death and kill him without due process on the other.

Maybe we'll do better the next time.