Alan Roettinger

Shortly after 9/11, I was wondering what I might say to Osama bin Laden if I somehow got a chance to reason with him. Surely every human being has a point of kinship with every other human being, so what could I say, briefly, to connect? This is what I came up with. I had a dream a couple of weeks ago, in which I met the young Osama (before he became the man who would justify murder in religious terms), and spoke these words to him--sort of a dream come true, in a dream. We then had a discussion which I no longer recall, but I do remember that he understood what I was saying. The human heart is like that. Especially now that he's dead, it's much less a bit of advice for him than an excellent note to myself.