I don’t want to be a “fear monger”. I don’t want to be an alarmist. The last thing I want to do is jump to a far-off conclusion. But with the passing of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, A.K.A. the “torture bill”, we as a nation have slid down a slope of moral ineptitude, and destined our children for a future on the moral low-ground. We have forfeited our claim to being just and fair, and succumbed to the fear that many will accuse me of “mongering”.
Now, many legal analysts out there are claiming different things about the possibility of the act allowing the president to imprison and detain US Citizens forever. I don’t know about the validity of this charge. I would hope that the US Constitution would protect us from this Act, but I guess time will tell.
No, I’m more concerned with the fact that we are justifying the use of torture, and ignoring our tradition of Habeus Corpus, in order to stay safe from the “evil doers”. I am more concerned with the fact that we are willing to throw away our values as it pertains to ‘aliens’, in order to feel more safe.
Currently, Rep Mark Foley and Foley-gate have dominated the media. I’m sure that the neo-cons consider that an early Christmas gift as it is detracting from scrutiny of this bill. But even without Foley-gate, the main stream media would probably not be covering the details of this act.
I know the argument for this bill. I know why some Democrats voted for it. I don’t agree, but I know the argument. We need to get information, they say. They are our enemies who want to destroy us, so they don’t deserve the same rights as we have, they say. Hogwash! The techniques used, like waterboarding and sensory depravation, are techniques that our have been military trained to resist for years as they were effective in BRAINWASHING the prisoner, so that they would say or believe anything you tell them. These techniques are not used to get information, but to force statements from the prisoners. We learned these techniques during the cold war where they were used by the Soviets for exactly that reason.
We are being tested, people! We have an election coming up where we have to win, because it is another chance to tell the world that we do believe in justice. We do believe in human rights, even if we despise the human. We do believe in the American Way, even if the neo-cons and the theo-cons have lost their way.
The other day a schoolhouse in Pennsylvania became the residence of evil for a day. A gunman, himself haunted by his own demons, shot and killed children. For no other reason than they were children, and that made them fair game, I guess, if you’re an evil SOB. A grandfather of one of the girls who was killed stood over his daughter and told the other children that, 'We must not think evil of this man.” Imagine that. In one comment, this wise man turned this hellish moment into a moment of enlightenment, and showed us all the true meaning of faith. I pray that we could carry this kind of faith to our policies around the world and with our attitude with our allies and enemies.
America has at its best and greatest export the ability to be strong in the face of injustice, and just in the face of tyranny. We have exported neither of those attributes for the past five years. For our future and our children, I pray that we remember the faces of our fathers, and begin anew with a November election that reflects the values we hold dear, and to once again make “The American Way” mean something good again.
