Osama bin Laden is dead, by actions the US government are calling justice.  Violent execution passes for justice from a country that has intricate laws and a multi-tiered court system all flowing from a rich constitution.

I’m afraid I’ll have to, ironically refer to Do The Right Thing. Spike Lee’s divisive meditation on race closed with 2 statements, from MLK and the other Malcolm X. Though not entirely appropriate for this situation, it’s close enough:

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral.

It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert.

Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.

It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need.

Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.

– Malcolm X

-28-

Also published on Medium.