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In light of today’s news about Saddam Hussein’s demise, some may feel like celebrating. Pardon me if I recuse myself from personal signs of exuberance, whether subtle or grandiose. I can still vividly remember the sickening celebrations in the street that accompanied Ted Bundy’s execution in Florida. I wondered then, as I do now, what has become of a world that can rejoice at such violence.
Does this photo from Iraqi television look familiar to anyone? A human being in the clutches of people wearing masks and performing an execution before the watching world? Could the irony be any more pronounced? Here is the great “war on terror” in bold relief, and for all intents and purposes, it looks and smells like a continued assault on peace, civility, and sanity. Does anyone feel safer? Then by all means, break out the bubbly even if it is a day before New Year’s Eve.
Blood. It continues to be spilled by the “good” and the “bad.” One day, all motives, fears, frailties, lusts, and vengeful longings will be exposed and brought into the light of day. On that day, will our political soundbites and eloquent justifications save us? On that day, who can stand?
Just yesterday I picked up a book of poems by Wendell Berry that expressed my personal sentiment today better than I can:
G. Kevin Baker 
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