Celebrating life, not bin Laden’s death, on Mayday 2011

Early May in Minnesota (photo by VB)

 

 

 

The weather has been colder than usual this week in the Twin Cities, and no one left a festive basket at my door on Sunday, May 1. That was the date many people around the world will long remember, not as a celebration of life, but as the day Osama bin Laden died.

Some of us will also remember the tremendous cost incurred in blood and treasure to bring about his death. Most poignantly, Kristen Breitweiser, 9/11 widow and activist wrote on this occasion:

I think about the thousands of lives lost -- American, Afghani, Iraqi. I know firsthand the sorrow those families have felt. I ponder how the billions -- maybe trillions -- of dollars could have been better spent. I remain alarmed about the continued expansion of absolute Executive power in the name of fighting this seemingly ongoing and never-ending "war on terror." I worry about the further erosion of our constitutional rights. I wonder when our troops will ever be called home. I know all too well, that thousands of young American men and women soldiers will never have the opportunity to return home. And of course, I fear reprisal.

In the meantime, as May Day came and went, the grass turned green and new leaves appeared on the trees, even way up here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. And so life defeats death once more; may it continue to do so, now and forever.