Tuesday, May 3, 2011

At last...

                                                                     
with apologies to Etta James...

at last....
Osama's death has come along
his breathing days are over
now we all can sing a song
yeah, at last...

Growing up on that dry land cotton farm, I had occasion to kill things from time to time.  I've wrung chicken's necks and watched them flop around, their life's blood spilling onto the dry ground.   I've shot my share of birds and rabbits and I guess I was a pretty fair country shot, knocking off more than a few house sparrows from 40-50 yards using my granpa Mc's semi-automatic .22 rifle.  I gave them to my granma's old, gray, tabby cat-- Tom.

Maybe the biggest thing I've ever shot was a red tailed hawk.  I still feel bad about doing that.  Hawks are themselves good hunters, keeping down the varmint population, thus they are a farmer's friend.  I've killed my share of snakes, the last one I remember was because one of my aunties insisted.  Snakes can be a pest, like when one gets into the hen house and helps himself to the eggs. Still most snakes do more good than harm; they too help keep the rodent population down.

I spent two years in the army, was trained to take out the enemy in any number of ways including the M-14 rifle.  The fates never put me in a position to take another human life and I'm not sorry about that.

It's been years since I've fired a rifle of any kind.  Still, had I found the evil snake that was Osama Bin Laden in my sights, I hope that I wouldn't have hesitated to pull the trigger.

The hurt visited upon our great nation, and the world, by this evil man and his minions has at last seen some small semblance of closure.

OBL's death will not bring back those loved ones who died in the twin towers, at the Pentagon and and on flight 93. It won't bring back the men and women killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq in the war against terrorism.  Our country and the world may be no more safe than it was in the almost 10 years since that September day but I pray that with his removal those families, this country and the world at large can at least for a moment rest easy in knowledge that he cannot do harm again.

Terrorism is still a very real threat to this country and our friends and allies around the world.  Still, it gives me some comfort that this man, standard bearer to all those who would follow him and do his bidding, has finally drawn his last. aio                                                                                                                                                                              

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