As a non-T.V. watcher who is currently viewing some generic programming to overcome some serious jet lag I have been out of the loop with "breaking news." I have also been significantly removed from the rhetoric of international conflict and anti-terrorism. I've been studying mindfulness, practicing relinquishing control of the fruitless struggle to impose my will on the way my life unfolds. The announcement of Osama Bin Laden's death and how it was communicated to the world.
Clearly calmness of mind and the intention for peace were certainly not what was inspired yesterday evening. It was not the purpose of the Breaking News. The drastic and almost panicked broadcast of Osama Bin Laden's death conjured up both confusion and fear. I thought this was supposed to do the opposite? What about peace? What about feeling secure? I appreciated a more sober and holistic reflection on the news from the blog of the yogis of the Akhanda school at http://akhandayoga.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/an-eye-for-an-eye-makes-the-whole-world-blind/
This perspective helped me to see and to remember what it was exactly, which made me so uneasy and disheartened. It is the same thing that struck me most through the violent goals of the whole "War on Terror" and displayed concretely with death of Bin Laden that were clearly hateful, biased, reactions void of reason and compassion but continually toted as 'justice.' For me these tactics and their results seem to leave a great deal of uncertainty of what justice actually is and what it should feel like when it is realized. Can justice be only for one and not all?
If I ever have the opportunity to enact justice I certainly hope that after the verdict is passed and consequences complete that the news to be broken could be a source of comfort, an example of goodness and equality and for the ultimate goal of realizing peace.
