Ten (or so) years ago…

Originally titled "Yes, Virginia, There is Evil in the World"

The Devil, the First, the Source, the Lone Power, the Dark Side, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. These are all names we have for the same thing: ultimate Evil. Yes, that’s Evil with a capital “E”. There are more names for it, of course. As each culture has recognized Evil for what it was, as each fantasy writer has created a new ultimate villain, the list of names Evil wears has grown accordingly. So with all due respect to the New York Sun and young Miss O’Hanlon, and as distasteful as moral relativists may find this, it is true: there is Evil in the world.

That’s right: there is Evil in the world. A simple statement, but one so many people have trouble believing, much less saying. There are people all over the world who refuse to see what is so obvious to those of us who recognize the truth of right and wrong: Osama bin LAden is an evil man. Stalin and Hitler were both evil men as well, but in today’s blur of moral relativism, I suppose they were just misunderstood. It could even be said that their actions were perfectly justifiable from their point of view, and so no one else should have a problem with those actions either. Try explaining that to the almost six million Jews Hitler killed and the untold millions of people of all beliefs that Stalin killed. Of course Osama’s body count isn’t anywhere near that high yet, but I would prefer those records never be broken. So, as the world rose up and fought Hitler, we must again rise and fight Osama bin Laden. Since shortly after the beginning of time Good has always battled Evil, and this will be one more battle in the long war. Naturally, there are those who oppose war in general, and this one in particular.

On September 11, 2001, the world watched in horror as Evil made itself plainly visible on live television. The hijackers on those four flights were not misunderstood, they were not acting out, they were not freedom fighters on a holy crusade, they were in the service of Evil, and had handed themselves to it freely. One of the greatest forces for Evil in our time, Osama bin Laden, is known to both hate America and has not flinched away from the mass murder of innocents to make his hatred known. It was once said, perhaps in jest, perhaps not, that Evil will always triumph over Good unless Good is very, very careful. In this instance the United States is acting as a force for Good, and we need to be very, very careful.