Global Perspectives... Lost?

The steady flow of world-changing events seems never-ending: Japan’s tsunami and nuclear crisis, the so-called “Arab spring” in the middle east with one country after another in turmoil and chaos, violent storms in the southern United States, and some might add the death of Osama Bin Laden.

These tectonic shifts are coming so quickly that just as we start to get our heads around one event, another follows closely on the heels. How difficult it is to find time to reflect and gain perspective. And I constantly feel the temptation to “turn off,” to look elsewhere and forget the massive amounts of suffering and tribulation for such a large percentage of the world.

I’m not alone in that. I can hardly find anyone willing to even talk about these events and our response to them - more than a few days after the main event has been splattered on the front pages of every publication and web site. Frustrating, to say the least . . . I suppose a sort of malaise is normal. I often wonder if we were created in such a way as to handle so many tragedies, one so close to the next.

But from time to time, we have to stop and consider how we are responding. That time for me came as the news of Bin Laden’s death splashed across our screens. I watched the announcements - from several news outlets and countries - and I watched or listened to a fairly wide variety of “crowd reactions,” as individuals cheered and danced and sang “God bless America.”

Some reading this may say, “Oh, he’s just lived outside the US too long!” That may be true. But I have to admit that I was shocked that there was hardly a mention of the lack of any sort of trial - something which at least used to be a keystone in the American justice system. While I agree that taking the lives of 3,000 people - mostly civilians - is horrendous and the perpetrator of such an act has forfeited his right to life, I have a hard time digesting summary execution.

Maybe there was no option. Maybe he resisted and that led to him being shot. I want to give the benefit of the doubt. But I’m more troubled at the loss of perspective that makes us not even want to question whether death without a trial is not also horrendous. Maybe, some will say, I should just keep my wonderings to myself . . .