Shots have been ringing out from automatic weapons in Libya celebrating his death.
The man we have loved to hate for many years is dead - what a relief. A time to celebrate. Right?
Here is what I think many of us in the West do with a person like Gaddafi, especially when he is overthrown:
* We hope that "he gets what he deserves." Clearly Gaddafi has done horrible things in his 40 years in power. Somehow we hope he is punished in death for all of his wrong-doing;
* We assume that whoever or whatever replaces the dictator will be "better," since Gaddafi was so bad. The reality is that the dictator's removal makes the region all the more unstable and some pretty bad folks can step into the political vacuum. I think Egypt is figuring out that Mubarek may not have been so bad as people thought;
* Gaddafi was such a strong icon to evil, similar to how history looks at Adolf HItler. It is quite easy to demonize these people, to put on them the blame for much of what is wrong in the Muslim world. So if we just get rid of this one bad guy things will turn around in Islam.
What is so often missing when someone like Gaddafi is killed is sadness, and compassion. Col. Muammar Gaddafi was a human being, with a wife (or more than one), a bunch of kids and grand kids. He was a nutcase in a lot of ways and harmed many, many people. But he was also a person in need of God, of God's grace, of forgiveness. Sounds a lot like me actually. May Muammar Gaddafi "rest in peace," as my Jewish brothers would say about someone who has died.
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