Surfing around the New York Post's website on Tuesday, I came across a message board with the question, "If you could clone anyone, who would it be?" The most interesting part about it, however, was that the comments - two in particular - had nothing to do with the issue of human cloning.
Both said that Osama bin Laden would be the person they would clone, but for very different reasons. Both advocated murder in their comments, but again, in different ways.
The first post, from "Divine Justice" wrote; "I would clone Osama bin Laden because he has done something that the USA has done all over the world, financing dictatorships all over the world which have cost millions of missing and dead people. What happened to Americans is what the Palestinian nation suffers everyday, the whole Middle East suffers...."
The second post read, "Osama bin Laden: This way we can raise him in a cage and kill him when we're ready and know that at least we'll get one of him." (The poster went to say something about Anna Kornikova as well, but that's for another time).
Neither of these points of view are unique, as both have been shouted around the world since Sept. 11. But instincts tell me that while most Americans would be disturbed about the lauding of bin Laden, they might admit they've harbored many of the same feelings as our friend with an affinity for cages. It is this opinion that I take exception to.
I'm not saying that we should clone as many Osamas as possible, or that the work of the Al Qaeda network is even remotely condonable. I do think, however, that Americans have become fixated around getting even for what happened in New York and Washington DC and that we are ignoring some of the larger lessons of this tragedy. How many people stopped to think about "Divine Justices" accusations before they denounced the writer as a lunatic? It seems that sometimes we forget that there are other people in the world who matter.
Much of the world sees the US in one of two ways. Either as an isolationist who couldn't care about anyone else, or as an imperialist who is trying to destroy everyone else. Before dismissing these opinions as bad PR on the part of the White House, perhaps we should actually think about them. Does the rest of the world have a case? Do we have license to ignore their concerns, just as we would scoff at pro-bin Laden remarks, just because we don't like what we hear?
The world, not just fundamentalists, has grievances with us. They don't like us, and that includes a good chunk of our NATO allies. As we move forward in the 21st century, there are two ways to proceed. America can do as President Bush did prior to Sept. 11 and tell any complainers out there where they can stick it. Or, Americans can wake up to the world and start to think about where we fit into a complex political map.
If you're interested in the latter option, the first step is to listen. Listen to what people you don't like are saying. Try to understand their viewpoint, and why they wouldn't mind seeing you dead. If that sounds too painful, or bothersome, we can just continue along our present course; building up our GDP, increasing our standard of living, and ignoring how the rest of the world lives. The choice is ours. Just remember, either way, we're all still stuck on the same planet together. That is, until one of us goes and blows the other off of it again.
Matt Kane is a junior majoring in economics. He is currently abroad in Brussels, Belgium.
