Friday, December 28, 2007

I like to use the expression "taking one for the team" a lot and it has versatile meanings. In sports, it means that instead of Kobe Bryant scoring 50 points every night, he'll only score 20 points, while dishing out 11 assists and helping his teammates play better to get a win for the team. In a relationship, it means that the man will go see the movie "Hairspray" despite the fact that the movie is utterly ghey, because it is very important to "her". When you are with your boys, it means talking and hollering at the pretty girl's ugly ass friend, because your boy is actually trying to holler at the pretty girl. But yesterday in Pakistan, we saw two versions of taking one for the team, that involved death and sacrifice.

Benazir Bhutto came out of eight years of exile, and she was in the midst of pre-election rally when she was killed. She was well aware of the risk she was taking by not only coming out of exile, but being highly critical of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. She was on numerous news outlets over the past few months, and she spoke very openly about the risks she took everyday, but she felt it was absolutely necessary for her to continue her mission, and in the end, she paid the ultimate price, and took one of the team. On the flip side, the suicide bomber who killed her, probably felt equally as passionate about his displeasure for Bhutto. I am speculating here, but this person was probably part of a much bigger anti-Bhutto movement, and someone probably convinced this person that they would be doing the world and more specifically Pakistan, a big favor by taking out not just her, but some of her supporters out as well. In the end, this person took his life, killed Bhutto, killed at least 30 other folks and injured countless other..and ultimately this person took one for the team as well. Some would view that act as cowardly and selfish, other would view it as heroic, and honestly I don't know what side I fall on right now, and I am resisting the knee-jerk reaction here, and giving it some real thought. But overall its sad that death had to be on the other end of both sacrifices.

3 comments:

maxwellsmusze said...

i have to say when i woke up to the news of her death early yesterday i wasn't suprised. very sad, but talk about someone walking the walk. she did indeed take one for the team.

Miss Black River said...

It's a sad day. I thought they would do a better job protecting her from the radicals. On another note, how impressive that a woman could serve as head of state in Pakistan. We STILL haven't had a woman president.

Hmm is this a boost for Hill??

£ said...

I think you hit the nail on the head there.

Sometimes i get caught up in the day to day drudgery of my life, and then i'll be reading the paper or watching CNN and it jolts me back to reality. the world is in a tumult forreal.