This morning I woke up feeling a little road rage. No, it wasn’t due to the Election results, though I’m still slightly perplexed on how that happened. The trigger for my frustration was a result of watching news coverage on another event from yesterday: Osama Bin Laden’s death.
I will most certainly point out that I’m not upset by his death but I’m stunned, if not a little unsettled by the general reaction to his death. Cloaked in the veil of patriotism, many people are cheering and celebrating. Some are calling it a safer world without him and closer to a world of peace. I thought there was only one death (and resurrection) that promised world peace? I find it remarkable to listen to people’s fixation on Bin Laden’s death as bringing justice to the tragic events of September 11th. I just wonder if closure can be found in justice when it sounds like revenge? Maybe I’m not the only one experiencing road rage.
Road rage is often triggered by our human nature to balance the score. I remember a particular example of road rage in my life. I was waiting in line at a drive through bank machine when a car cut me off and pushed in front of me. I must have used every word in the profanity dictionary. I was livid. The White Witch in Narnia was altruistic compared to how I was behaving. I remember driving up to the guy with the intent of flashing him a rude gesture, but folly got in my way. I was not looking how close I was to the median and I heard a sickening and heart-wrenching crunch of my rocker panel being scraped against concrete. Immediately, I realized how ridiculous I was being and drove away humbled.
I guess my point, even if rambling…is that I think there is something in mankind that loves revenge; it just doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. I do not believe the world is any safer or more secure with Bin Laden gone. Just as Batman still has other villains to chase once Joker is behind bars, there are other rogues (globally and in our own backyards) waiting for the opportunity to spark road rage.
There’s a quotation by Martin Luther King Jr. that seems to fit with what I’m trying to say:
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Road rage may be an intrinsic response but how we cope and move on says a little more about how we love.
New Roads 