In the hours after President Obama announced that Navy SEALs had killed Osama bin Laden, crowds spontaneously gathered in many cities to celebrate. People in Times Square, at the White House, on college campuses and all around the United States assembled to commemorate the killing. The jubilation was seen on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites as well.

It was nice to know that the people who had said, “Al Qaeda will wait us out,” had to eat a little bit of their hat. Those pundits did not take into account that we are patient as well.

But in watching the groups celebrate and reading comments on Facebook, I wondered if some are celebrating for the wrong reasons. There is a difference between saying justice has been served and getting revenge. Don’t get me wrong, those who lost loved ones in bin Laden-ordered attacks on innocent people had a reason to celebrate. And never forget that those attacks stretch far beyond those perpetrated against American citizens.

But it was unsettling to watch people celebrate death. Those images normally come from the Middle East. Throughout our history, we have tried to be the nation of civil thought and justice, not a nation just out for revenge.

The biggest reason it made me feel uncomfortable is what it teaches our children. I saw kids younger than school age at these gatherings. They were cheering that someone had been killed and probably not old enough to understand a war that has been raging from before their birth. Those kids are not old enough to fully grasp or even be allowed to watch news reports or see photos from 9/11. Try explaining terrorism, the cost of war or the complicated differences between religions to a 5-year-old. Some adults don’t fully grasp those issues.

And is it a good idea to expose a child that young to those issues before they fully grasp their own mortality? And think about how a child that young will process the fact that people are celebrating death.

Beyond the impact on children, what does it say about our society if we celebrate death, even of an individual who perpetuated hate. We did not see such celebrations after Timothy McVeigh, the master mind of the Oklahoma City bombing, was put to death. And he physically set the bomb off that killed 168 people and injured 450.

I heard some criticizing the Obama administration and military for giving bin Laden a proper Muslim burial. But the point of the war on terror is that we did not start it, but we will end it. You do not end a war on terror by creating more terrorists.

As much as most of the world hates bin Laden, he is revered by those who want to do us harm. Making them more angry and creating new terrorists just incites war and is not worth two minutes of self gratification. In these instances, we have to rise above the carnal impulses and try to end the hatred. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “An eye-for-an-eye makes the whole world blind.”

Kirkland Reporter staff writer Matt Phelps can be reached at mphelps@kirklandreporter.com or 425-822-9166 ext. 5052.