A Queen Can Forgive Her Vanquished Foe

I know I'm about a week too late, but this scene just crossed my mind in relation to the recent events surrounding Osama bin Laden. I'll keep my soap box firmly tucked under my arm for this one, but I hope we might at least think about this in relation to the Osama events.

In one of the best scenes of 20th century American Lit, Tony Kushner thinks quite nicely about forgiveness. In this scene, set at the height of the AIDS crisis in New York City, Roy Cohn has just died of complications relating to AIDS, and the fabulous Belize, his nurse and former drag queen, has come to steal Roy's supply of AZT (still in its experimental phases and hard to come by) from his hospital room. Belize, Louise, and the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, together, thank Roy by saying the Kaddish over his body. When Louis protests (and for very good reason), Belize responds:

"He was a terrible person. He died a hard death. So maybe. A queen can forgive her vanquished foe. It isn't easy, it doesn't count if it's easy, it's the hardest thing. Forgiveness. Which is maybe where love and justice finally meet. Peace, at last. Isn't that what the Kaddish asks for?"

Just something to think about, though I understand that it's a little hard to think about out-of-context. Incidentally, it's a really beautiful play, if you haven't read it.