Former (and perhaps, future) Pakastani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was slain on Thursday by an assassin's bullet, and subsequently others around her died at the hands of that same assassin's suicidal explosion.  The world and democracy suffer at the hands of a terrorist:  a terrorist who couldn't allow the people of Pakistan to decide for themselves, as individuals, the leaders of their country and the direction of their future.

Heroes are hard to find, and when they do emerge among us it is easy to ascribe to them other-worldly traits and forget their humanity, their flaws.  Courage airbrushes many flaws on the canvas of character.  Thus we see the lionization, and in some cases, near deification, of such larger-than-life figures as Winston Churchill, Mohandas Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ronald Reagan, et al.  We forget their flaws.  But this is not, at least not necessarily, a negative attribute of our collective intelligence.  When we see greatness in the arts, in sports, in writing, and especially in leadership, we tend to focus on the positive; the object of our adulation then seems to transcend ordinary constraints and assume the embodiment of a particular ideal.  For example:  Martin Luther King has come to symbolize equality and rejection of racial discrimination; Winston Churchill embodies the very spirit of the fight against fascism (and later, Communism); Ghandi has become synonymous with peaceful resistance.  Personal failings become unimportant, even ones that would otherwise be significant — the larger meaning is the important and over-riding factor.

With Benazir Bhutto, we have just such a situation.  She was certainly a flawed individual — to say so is redundant, as we are all, as humans, flawed.  I won't profess to know the details of her guilt or innocence on charges of corruption during her time as Prime Minister of Pakistan.  But even if one were to concede that each and every allegation were true, the fact still remains:  Ms. Bhutto showed the ultimate in courage and strength of character when faced with mortal danger.  Given the choice to live out a quiet, respectable life in comfort versus fighting, at great personal risk, for a greater ideal, she chose to fight.  She chose to face the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", and to oppose them.  She chose to stand, knowing her life was at risk — even after a previous attempt on her life.  She chose to stand, much like our own Founding Fathers (themselves flawed, each) "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence" on her own "sacred Honor".  Unfortunately she stood, and was felled.

The future of Pakistan is, in the ultimate cliche, at a crossroad.  A corrupt and self-serving dissident (and also a former Prime Minister), Nawaz Sharif, has blamed President Pervez Musharraf for the assassination; he is now advocating a boycott of next month's currently-scheduled elections.  Musharraf himself has a mixed record when it comes to both democracy and dealing with fundamentalist jihadist Muslims in Pakistan.  The country has been thrown into turmoil by the gruesome act, and as a nuclear power, the entire world is a less stable place now than it was 24 hours ago.  But one thing is certain:  we have seen first-hand that we still have among us men and women who are willing to lay down their own respective lives to advance the cause of liberty.  Let us hope that others use that courage, that spirit, as inspiration toward the greater good, towards liberty and freedom and democracy for Pakistan.  Let us hope that this act of violence helps inspire new leadership that eschews violence in favor of persuasion, that chooses empowerment of the individual over enslavement of the masses.

Benazir Bhutto:  may she rest in peace as a symbol of freedom, liberty, democracy, and courage.