When I say that I am "blogging my way to sanity" you can rest assured that its a true statement. We live in a world that by all accounts- appears to be slipping from sanity-to insanity. Webster's defines insanity as a "mental disorder" but thats as far as it will go. I suppose we would need a collective "sane zone" that would be determined as a place that is mentally stable or at least a code of conduct or movement that is accepted by the masses-a group of people number to be determined- that agree upon a basic course of human action that allows for each to express themselves-without doing harm to another. Harm of course would also have to be in the eyes and ears of the one being harmed-because each of us have our own built in lines of sanity that we adhere to. What determines the lines? Belief.
Osama Bin Laden is dead. He was shot in the head twice and once in the chest by an elite Navy Seals team while he was living in Pakistan. Apparently his public persona needed him to be on the run and living among caves and bombed out camps to keep his terrorist followers motivated that he was just like them-even though nothing could be further from the truth. He was the son of Mohammed Bin Laden a wealthy businessman and his mother was Mohammed's tenth (10th) wife-the lovely Hammida al-Attas. Mohammed was off to his 11th wife so Osama's parents divorced and he was then raised with three half-brothers and one half-sister when his mother remarried. Little Osama was lost in the shuffle.
Osama was raised as a devout Muslim. From 1968 to 1976, he attended the "élite" secular Al-Thager School where Osama studied economics and bussiness adminstration at King Abdulaziz University. Some reports suggest Osama earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979, or a degree in public administration in 1981. Other sources describe him as "hard working,"but having left university during his third year without completing a college degree. At university, Osama's main interest was religion, where he was involved in both "interpreting the Quran and jihad" and charitable work. He also wrote poetry. No really..he wrote poetry but then again so does Charles Manson.
Somewhere in all of this-a belief was born that the only way to set the world right and restore the Muslim world was to eliminate threats to it-anything that did not fit his version of what had been written centuries before had to go-and like most who confuse force with power, he was able to enlist young Muslim men that live on less than a dollar a day that salvation and favor would be found by becoming an "Army for Allah" and set about using humans as mortars for his crusade. On 9/11 his fate was sealed as the mastermind of the attacks on US soil which placed him on a list of men that throughout history changed the course of life as we know it. Hitler, Stalin, Hirohito, Leopold..take your pick. All those names and more have two things in common- 1) Somewhere along the line their wiring got crossed and they began to see the world from an insane perspective and 2) They all brought about their own demise by their beliefs and for the most part never thought it would happen. They all felt they were above their actions until sanity and perservence took them out, some by their own hand others by a Navy Seal.
The world is a better place without Bin Laden, but by no means is it safer. We can do the celebration "we got em" dance but truth is right now-somewhere out there is another Bin Laden or Timothy McVeigh who isnt getting enough attention or parents are divorcing or is getting slapped around or molested or whatever. It might be seeing the photo of Bin Laden who they believe died in a sacred jihad and is now banging away at 70 virgins is just the thing needed to have one of them say..." I want to be like him..."
I had never heard of the 70 virgin thing until after 9/11 but could imagine how some kid with nothing and longs for something would think that blowing himself up in the name of Allah would guarantee him a ticket to some serious skin would not think twice. Heck I had people I have known all my life believe that President Obama was born in Kenya and no amount of proof could change their minds. Every belief we have is constantly reinforced by our behavior-unless it is changed...and of course the only person that likes change is a wet baby.
Bin Laden died 65 years later to the day that Hitler pulled the trigger on his Lugar which has some wondering about the connection between the two. While the differences are obvious, Bin Laden at 6'5 and left handed with a serious kidney problem towered over the 5'6..uh left handed one testicled dictator. Wait a minute..65 years...Bin Laden was 6'5 and Hitler 5'6 both left handed...both sported some sort of facial hair..and had problems in the same basic anatomy set up. Hmmm..sorry for the detour.
Bottom line is that we live in a world of beliefs that have been either handed down from generation to generation or are born in an instant when in a moment someone takes an old belief and applies it to a new situation...like flying planes into buildings or executing millions of Jews. Both Osama Bin Laden and Adolf Hitler had another thing in common-they both believed what they were doing was right. Both have followers that still believe they are. We believe differently. We must...to remain sane.
No comments:
Post a Comment