Osama Bin Laden: Freedom Fighter or Terrorist?

I had a great experience this summer. It took 12 years to finally be able to teach American History. This was after a 6 year hiatus from teaching altogether. The experience I had made it worth the wait though. The class was seven eleventh graders, one girl from the Middle East, and one boy that should have been in my World History class but I let into the morning class because he had to work in the afternoon. All but the girl from the Middle East were African American. The unique thing was that many economic classes were represented among the African Americans which is not that common in our District. This was a pretty diverse group. I started teaching one day about the Progressive Era, “Manifest Destiny”, and the “Gilded” Age. Essentially, I was trying to get them to see that, despite a few new wrinkles, most of the issues that were important in that day are still important now. I began to talk about progress, the role of financial capitals, and national expansion. After I explained the importance of large financial capitals to the expansion aspirations of every world empire, I asked the students where the thought the next financial capital would be to replace New York. As I began to talk about Dubai the girl from the Middle East began to share with the class for the first time. She went on to tell the class about Dubai and the importance of that region in the world. An Islamic region that the other students had heard about on the news but now had a face to put to the stories. In short, they were being confronted by the “enemy” that they were being told we had to eliminate right in their very own classroom. She was being confronted by the same. This was the first day they had interacted at all. However, from that day forward she was my source of veracity about world affairs when the American kids did not believe what I was telling them about how others viewed the US. I kept telling them how lucky they were to have someone from a different part of the world in their class. This interesting dynamic came to a head one day when I asked the students if we were going into another era of “Manifest Destiny” in regards to the War on Terror. Most thought that we needed to respond to the attacks of 911 but definitely also thought we were in Iraq for oil. Then I decided to stir the pot. I told them about Michael Collins the Irish freedom fighter that brought Great Britain to its knees by assassinating their officials in Ireland one by one in cold blood until they agreed to Irish independence. I asked if he was a freedom fighter or terrorist. All agreed that he was a freedom fighter except the girl from the Middle East. Then I asked a provocative question that would seem cut and dried to all Americans. Nonetheless, not the entire world thinks like Americans. I asked if Osama Bin Laden was a freedom fighter or a terrorist. The girl from the Middle East said terrorist and then went on to defend what he did. She stated that it was a response to America being over there and killing babies in the name of freedom while we were trying to steal their oil. Another student called her on her inconsistency and asked if this was true, why did she call Michael Collins a terrorist? After a minute, she finally blurted out, “He is a freedom fighter” in total honesty in regards to Osama. All the American students were shocked. But they heard her out and began to connect the possible “Manifest Destiny” links to the current War on Terror. The definition that we had was, “An imperial invasion touted as benevolent or necessary.” It made them think for sure about how they could call Osama a terrorist and Michael Collins a freedom fighter if America was in Iraq for oil as they all thought. Then I went around the room and asked the Osama question again trying to pin them down. The one girl who had confronted the girl from the Middle East on her inconsistency and had also said Osama was a terrorist for sure had changed her mind. She was not sure now. The reason: “I have heard another perspective and I need to think about it more.” This made my return to teaching worth all the headaches in one crystallizing moment. Not because I have some agenda against the war or to make Osama look good. I am not sure how I would answer my own question to be honest. But I do know that I need to think critically about these things and not just accept what the Western media tells me as true. I need to value and consider all perspectives before I make a stand. This is especially true as we begin to evaluate the cost and benefits of globalism and its implications for our ever changing new techno world. History should answer the question of: How did we get here? My hope is that this discussion not only connected the past era of “Manifest Destiny” with the present but peaked students’ interest to make sure the all this “global” progress is not “gilded” as some thought the last shift from one era to another was during the Industrial Revolution. By “gilded” I am referring to the “Gilded Age” where many felt that all the progress looked good on the outside but once you scratched the surface and look deeper you saw the dross on the inside. This is a relevant question about “globalism” in my mind. Anyway, we went on to many more great discussions about whether Tupac was a thug or a prophet, why the Jews did not fight back against the Nazi’s, whether Martin Luther King or Malcolm X was right, and how all this related to their lives? The students would get mad when they would say both and I would tell them to get off the fence and pick a side. But I think they got my overall point that this stuff is more complex than it seems and very little in life is black and white. Most of all I hope they learned to be able to back up what they say with historical examples. All in all it was the best teaching experience I have had. I will miss that class.