On Good Versus Evil.

I admit the night Osama bin Laden was killed J and I missed it all. In an effort to start the week with a good nights rest, we'd gone to bed before the news and awoke to chatter on every avenue we see about the man's death.

I'm pretty sure I knew about his death before I even turned the tv on because of Facebook and/or Twitter. But it didn't sink in until I flipped on the tv to turn on Dora or Curious George or something and the red letters on the screen and the words being spoken while photos of the enemy were strewn across the screen.

Quickly fumbling with the remote, though my mind and curiousity wanted more info, I changed it. Knowing this time I'd have to gather my info elsewhere.

I usually view world events {such as the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan) as learning experiences where we talk about what's happened, what we can do and feel empathy.

But this is different. There is so much hate around this.

I flip on the radio in the car and between songs, the DJ is saying something about it and again I've got to switch it. The TV can't leave PBS right now. And even though my littles can't read, turning on the computer to play a game, the first site he sees shows the Middle Eastern man everyone's talking about.

"Who's that?"

T walks in from school Monday full to the brim of information. "We heard in social studies that this really terrible man was killed."

I shoot him a look to stop talking. So we start spelling.

"Why was he k-i-l-l-e-d?" I ask.

He shrugs and tells me; "He was a bad-guy." {T does know about Sept. 11 and I am sure his teacher discussed more than the bare bones facts T passed along. Ahem.}

I struggle with all this. We're raising our kids and telling them and teaching them that violence is bad. That we don't hate. {Hate in our house is considered a swear word, no joke.} Killing is totally out of the question.

But all around us, the news, the radio, the internet, TV, social studies class, is discussing this death and some are even celebrating. And I don't think our little ones can comprehend this stuff in totality. {And by little ones I mean most young children.}

Osama bin Laden was a terrible, no good, evil man. I firmly believe that with every ounce of my being. I believe his death can be a turning point for our country and that in many ways, his death is a way of bringing justice to the many lives he's taken. But does that mean we celebrate?

I hope that we're not missing an opportunity to teach our kids something here. It seems by conveying mixed messages when it comes to violence, hate and killing we could be saying the wrong thing.

What do you think?