As I’m suffering through an unreasonable, and very unexpected, bout of insomnia, I’m watching the news as I sometimes do. My bed is currently my enemy and I’ve fought with my sheets for several hours. I imagine I will be asleep very early on a Friday evening.
I wish I was now, but I digress.
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is dominating CNN, and I’m pleased to say that’s it’s not a Larry King repeat or a rehash of a five-hour old Anderson Cooper broadcast.
It’s actually news as it’s happening.
The network is playing CNN International and it’s been very informative about the life of Bhutto. The entire Bhutto family are like the Kennedys when you think about it, wrought with tragedy from a well off political family where death apparently was always on the horizon, sitting on the sidelines, waiting and watching. Her father was hung, one brother allegedly poisoned, another brother killed by gunfire and then Bhutto’s assassination yesterday. They’ve determined that she was shot in the throat and chest first, then the suicide bombing occurred and you know the rest.
Probably my biggest dilemma as I look toward my schedule later today is meeting with a Verizon manager who gave me a $700 phone bill this holiday season (which I’m not happy about) because some dimwit didn’t transfer my service to a new package (no worries, I have the documentation and it’s nothing more than just a hassle).
“I don’t fear death…I don’t think it can happen unless God wants it to happen because so many people have tried to kill me.”
Times Online quote from Bhutto
And then I have to put into perspective that I don’t have people trying to murder me all the time. In watching the interviews from the former prime minister, I honestly don’t know how Bhutto dealt with constant threats on her life and the deaths of her father and siblings. If you look at her history, she was human. She made mistakes. She was no saint. I mean, who is.
But today, she is the current face of a political martyr.
And, in times when the darkness surrounds me as it does at this moment except for the images on my small television, I wonder what it’s like to live with a mission and to know you will most likely die for your beliefs.
And I sit and wonder about the ramifications that will happen in the long run. None of this bodes well for the Middle East.
Or for the United States. We are a global community.
Actions always have reactions.
Newscoma 
[…] Newscoma ponders the life of a political martyr: But today, she is the current face of a political martyr. […]
I think that she knew and understood that returning to Pakistan and jumping into the political fray was signing her death warrant. I also wonder what her larger political plan and agenda is in the aftermath of her assasination because she was never a person to do something like this without a greater purpose either. It will be interesting to see how everything turns out.
I remember a 60 Minutes interview with her sometime in the 80’s or 90’s and she just stood out in so many ways. What a determined and interesting person.
I thought so too, saraclark.