Osama bin Laden and the enemies of justice

One of the primary reasons I chose to study law at Georgetown University is that it presented the remarkable opportunity to learn about justice - the great pillar of democracy - in Washington, DC, the heart of the world's strongest democracy.

I can vividly recall my first night in the law-student apartments. I was barely 21 years old - a world away from everything that was familiar to me. As I nervously perused the reading list from hell, I wondered if the revered academic institution had made a grave mistake in accepting me into its student body. Just months earlier, I was in college, largely concerned with having as much fun as possible. Suddenly, I was a law student expected to delve head first into the jurisprudence that shaped America's democracy. The task felt overwhelming. But, as I looked out the window of my little studio apartment, with the towering US Capitol building seemingly within arm's reach, I recognised that before me lay an extraordinary chance to explore the very foundations of liberty and democracy.

The value of liberty and democracy became clearer than ever on my second day of law school - Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Like most men, I've watched enough action/adventure movies to know exactly how to approach any cataclysmic event - nuclear attack, alien invasion, even a zombie takeover. I'd throw on my gas mask, steal an abandoned motorcycle and, having never before ridden anything other than a Honda 50, cruise valiantly towards the survivor colony in New Mexico - beautiful woman in tow, of course.

awaiting destruction

September 11, 2001 was no movie, though. After a routine, early-morning workout, I watched on TV, stunned, as commercial airliners, piloted by terrorists, and loaded with innocent passengers, flew into the World Trade Center. I went to class. As the atmosphere grew increasingly tense and the severity of the situation began to set in, we were dismissed and ordered to take shelter. I, along with my new schoolmates, watched in utter disbelief as the unprecedented events unfolded. As bemused pedestrians and disoriented drivers made a muddled mess of the streets outside, we learned that another plane had smashed into the Pentagon, America's military headquarters, a few miles away and another was heading to the Capitol building - a few blocks away.

I don't recall exactly why I went upstairs to my room when I should have been taking refuge in the basement. But as I stood bewildered, an unwilling actor in an apocalyptic film - no gas mask, no bike, no clue about the ultimate fate of the world as I knew it - I looked out at the Capitol building, tensely awaiting its impending destruction.

It's incredible how quickly 10 years elapses. On Sunday night, I watched as US President Barack Obama announced that the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and the world's most hunted man, Osama bin Laden, had been killed by US special forces.

capital of crime and injustice

As Americans cele-brated on the very streets that had, a decade earlier, resembled war zones, I once again peered through a window. This time I looked not at democracy's capital but at one of the capitals of crime and injustice - the culturally rich, socially vibrant and otherwise amazing city of Kingston. I thought about our own enemies of democracy who have, like bin Laden, waged an unrelenting attack on liberty and justice. I thought about this nation that has, for dozens of years, been at the mercy of the corrupt and lawless. I thought about the countless Jamaicans who, as a result of this corruption and lawlessness, have virtually nothing to celebrate. And then I smiled.

The death of any human - no matter how vile and repulsive the individual - is never cause for celebration. My smile was prompted not by bin Laden's demise or some sadistic enjoyment of Jamaica's woes but by the pertinence of words inscribed on Georgetown's law library: 'Law is but the means - Justice is the end'. As President Obama declared to the world that "justice has been done," it struck me that be it in the suburbs of Pakistan, the concrete jungles enmeshing Kingston's meanest streets, or the hallowed halls where the 'gangs of Gordon House' reign, justice, like the US Capitol building, will emerge unscathed. It is immutable. It will ultimately prevail.

Din Duggan is an attorney who now works as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com or follow him at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan.