Those who knew me 20-plus years ago will tell you I was one angry guy. I had a chip on my shoulder the size of Texas, and regularly thought about how awesome it would be to get my revenge on people who I believed wronged me at the time.
Back then, I would have craved seeing a picture of Osama bin Laden with his head blown off. I didn’t die on 9-11, obviously. I didn’t know any of the victims, either. But that day sure threw me into a stupor of fear. Fear has a habit of bringing out a lust for retribution.
Now bin Laden is dead and I’m as happy about it as the next guy. He was evil. Evil should be destroyed whenever the opportunity presents itself. It’s pretty cut and dry.
But what happens after that, when someone asks to see the photos?
Mood music:
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The news just came out that President Obama will not release photos of bin Laden’s corpse. Michele Mcphee, host of the Michele McPhee Show on AM 680 WRKO in Boston, is outraged. In all caps across her Facebook page is this statement: INSULT TO THE MEMORIES OF THOSE MURDERED ON 9-11!
Give me a fucking break. Seriously.
Explain how not releasing the photo insults their memories. All the photos would do is appeal to everyone’s desire to see more blood. I’ll admit it: I would look at the photo. But I’m not proud about it. I’m glad I won’t have the opportunity.
Some things are better left unseen.
As for those who will cry conspiracy and lies if they don’t have the proof in front of them, whatever. These folks will find plenty of reasons to say those things because they don’t like anything about Barack Obama.
I’m not what you’d call an Obama fan. I wanted Hillary to win in 2008. But when people get so wound up over politics, they will always play up their adversary as the devil. And so it is in this case.
The bad guy is dead. He’s not coming back. If you really need to see a picture of his corpse for proof, I feel sorry for you. I feel even more sorry for you if you think we have to release such a photo to honor the memories of those who died on 9-11-2001.
I don’t know McPhee. I’m sure she’s a fine person. But this crap is just her playing to her right-wing audience. It doesn’t help us move forward. It just gives people more fodder for their useless bitching sessions.
I’m not talking about those who have real policy differences and have other ideas about how best to conduct government. I’m talking about people who just want someone they can hate because they’re unhappy about their own lives.
Instead of working on alternative solutions, they just sit there and whine all day about who is to blame for their lot in life.
Grow up and move on. Honor the victims by trying to live a better life.
I agree 100%, Bill. And Ms. McPhee is an insult to the human race at times, typical of the right-wing gasbags that dominate local and national talk radio. I just took WRKO off the presets in my car because I didn’t want to take a chance of tuning in by mistake.
Love your stuff Bill but I think the call for a photo is more of a call for absolute proof, not blood-lust. How many times have politicians been caught in lies? Clinton didn’t have sexual relations with that woman, Nixon is bad with tape recorders … For the third consecutive time, our state’s house speaker is on trial. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s dead. But we could have waited to bury him. I don’t care about his traditions after what he did.
Some people, especially when it comes to death, require more absolute proof than “he’s dead.” That’s true of widows of POWs and MIAs from Vietnam and of human beings in general. A funeral/wake isn’t for the benefit of the dead, but the living. It’s closure to see with your own eyes proof of death whether you cared for the person or not. Simply having someone tell you a thing is true is not the same as seeing it for yourself. I think generalizing the need / call to see photos is doing a disservice to a very basic human need for closure and that closure of a life often requires more concrete proof than a press release or public statement.
That said, it is an insult to 9-11 victims? No. The victims of 9-11 are in a place beyond needs for such proof and, hopefully, beyond the need for such closure.
I neither need nor demand such proof in this case. The refusal to release photos or not changes nothing, just as the death of bin Laden changes very little of the reality in which we have to life in the aftermath. I rejoice in the destruction of evil but recognize that the taint of that evil will continue to stain our great nation regardless.
Amen, sister.