Osama's death not a reason to party.

So Osama was killed Sunday by U.S. forces. That was kind of good to hear...and when I say kind of, I mean it. Images on television of people rallying in Times Square New York, and in front of the White House shouting U.S.A. and "hey hey, goodbye" totally surprised me. Are we really, as a people, celebrating the assassination of Osama bin Laden? Yes, he was a monster. Yes he killed many, many people through his commands, his subservients and his terror. I get all that. I still remember the exact moment I heard of the horrors happening on September 11, 2001. I did not know anyone personally who died in those attacks, however I felt the grief in what unfolded during those hours and days. It forever changed my perspective, maybe in the same way D-day or the Kennedy assassinations did for those generations. But no matter how I shake my head, I can't understand cheering for someone's death.

Is that the Christian thing to do? Regardless your religion or spiritual beliefs, is celebrating the killing of another person truly what you're supposed to do? I can agree with a collective exhale, with a sigh of relief, even with a desire to see a picture of his dead body just to be sure. But hooting and hollering and singing and partying doesn't seem right.

The mistakes that man made in the name of his religion, his mental illness, his unique and awful badness - those mistakes will bite him in the tail one day - karma is real and it really can be a "bitch." But us celebrating might bring on a bit of bad karma too. It feels good to shed the world of evil - and he was certainly evil in this lifetime - but we are not the judge, and whether or not we like it, his life did serve a dreadful purpose that might just be too big for us to understand, let alone agree with.

I feel good for our servicemen, for the victim's families, for our government...but I do feel wary of what may come. What will Osama's followers feel when they see footage of us celebrating in our streets? We need to calm down and treat this situation with the grim respect it deserves.