current events

Ok, so let me get this straight. All U.S. military detainees now get the minimal protection afforded by article 3 of the Geneva conventions, but this is not a change in policy. What does that mean? Does business go forward as usual, or are we done with such despicable habits as waterboarding? As my husband says, “There was a time when waterboarding didn’t take up any space in my brain.” I resent that I know about this, and other methods of torture the U.S. military employs, in great detail. I want my government’s doublespeak to mean that we are done with torture, but it doesn’t say that, does it?

And of course, even if we were to do the just and civilized thing by those we have detained in military custody, what of those in CIA custody?

This should be good news. I hope it is good news.

In unrelated current news, when did Bombay become Mumbai? And why? Clearly, I’m not paying enough attention. And for some unexplainable reason, all the foreign reporters I heard today said Mumbai, but the Indians all said Bombay.

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Gah. The world cup has suddenly turned into the all-Europe cup. Lame. Every team I rooted for got sent home in the quarterfinals. Even Brazil! After Argentina, Ukraine and England got sent home I thought, “Well, at least I can still bank on Brazil!” I was already thinking how cool it would be for the two Portuguese speaking teams to meet up in the semis. Alas, it appears I cannot, in fact, bank on the Brazilians to beat the French. Bleah.

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My husband and I watched Hotel Rwanda last week. It is a wonderfully made, excellent, harrowing film. I recommend it without reservation. I had to steel myself for it, but I made it through ok. The director made some excellent choices about what to show and what not to show. It’s horrible all the way down, though, no doubt about that. I put myself through it because I sort of believe that Santayana quote about the past.

I sometimes think about what it would be like living in a country where genocide was occurring. After a few moments reflection, I usually conclude that I wouldn’t survive, much less help others to survive. I’d mouth off to someone and get shot, or just not be quick enough on my feet to get away, or just not find a good enough hiding place, or simply refuse to believe another human being capable of killing me. I’d be one of those uncounted bodies, littering the streets. I’m just an average sort of person, not particularly heroic or resilient. And in Rwanda, there were hundreds of thousands of people just like me, people who were hacked to death with machetes. Regular people, citizens, just going about their lives. You know, like we do.

It’s hard to reconcile, but I didn’t do anything to make the Rwandan genocide stop. I was, shamefully, barely aware of it. Our nation did nothing, nor did we demand action from it. The United Nations did not intervene, either. Hundreds of thousands killed, and we refused aid or to even listen to them die. What was I doing that was so important I couldn’t write a letter to my senator? I can’t recall. At least it’s over now, right? If only. Genocides such as the one that shattered Rwanda keep recurring. In the former Yugoslavia not so long ago, and today, in the Darfur region of Sudan. When will we stop?

We can only stop it consciously, and with effort. It’s not going to happen by itself. Think about it with me, please. There’s someone in Darfur who is just like you, except about to be killed, either by being driven off the land that provides their livelihood or by direct force. There’s someone in Darfur who is just like you, except they’ve turned their skills of herding and slaughtering cattle to herding and slaughtering people. Think about it, and hold your breath. Thank you.

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Of the three suicides this weekend at Guantanamo Rear Admiral Harris, camp commander, says, “They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.” Odd that he should think acts of desperation and acts of war are mutually exclusive propositions, don’t you think?

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The kerfluffle over Absolute Write being shut down by Barbara Bauer’s scream and scare tactics will probably die down soon. What shouldn’t be forgotten though, is that past behavior is the best predictor future behavior. Once a scammer, always a scammer. Spread the word.

Remember Yog’s law: Money Flows Toward the Writer.

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I don’t even know how to say it anymore. I wish I could come up with yet another eloquent or at least impassioned plea to my government to stop debasing us with human rights atrocities. I don’t know what’s worse now, that we’re probably doing unspeakable things to people we cannot prove in a court are guilty of any crimes so we hide them in secret prisons, or that this action is defended and called just by citizens of what we once referred to with some authority and dignity as the world’s greatest democracy. Sure, I’ve no evidence that the CIA isn’t handing out balloons and cupcakes at these secret installations, but I can’t imagine why they’d need a special exemption to the torture bill for such bonhomie.

To see further examples of Americans defending the CIA ‘black sites’ and endorsing the torture that likely occurs therein, try the comments on this entry by Real Live Preacher, primarily the ones made by Little Green Friend, RickinVa and the ever popular Anonymous User. I bet these people would not even consider themselves moral relativists. And yet, wishy washy peace-loving me can put my foot down and say torture is wrong under any circumstances whatever. Evil wrong. Not negotiable, and not a single circumstance under which my government can or should do it.

I’m just about ready to scratch this whole country and start over again fresh. Can I get a mulligan? Seriously, I don’t need the country of my adult life to turn into the country of my childhood.

And it’s interesting, isn’t it, how quick all the Eastern European nations were to say “I’m not hosting this party“? It’s looking like maybe Poland, and looking like the EU isn’t happy about that.

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Yes, I think the glee I feel at the Miers debacle is base and ugly. Oh, but do I ever feel it. Hee, hee.

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We have lost one of our nation’s faces of heroism. Thank you, Rosa Parks, for showing us that traditions can be ripped and re-stitched into a better society for all. We need more people like you, people of integrity, invested in their community and dedicated enough to plan for change. May you rest in peace.

A reflection from John Scalzi, on the beauty of having to explain segregation to his child. Slacktivist dispels the myth of one woman, working alone, and reminds us that “Revolutions can be planned.”

Meanwhile, there’s nothing to give you the feel of the times like primary sources. From the Sovereignty Commission Records, you can see both extremes: 1) From the Southern Student Organizing Committee Newsletter of January 1965, Jeff Shero writes, “The revolution began with beautiful simplicity. Mrs. Rosa Parks, an elderly woman, refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was arrested. This small affirmation of human dignity sparked the Montgomery bus boycott that led to the first notable victory for non-violent direct action in the South.” 2) Honorable John R. Rarick includes John S. Perilloux’s The Untold Story of Martin Luther King in the May 1968 Congressional Record,”And what of Mrs. Rosa Parks, the woman who precipitated the bus boycott? Shortly before the incident on the bus, Mrs. Parks had attended the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. To fully understand the nature and purpose of this school we must go back to the early 1930’s, a time when the Communist Party had great dreams and expectations for using the Negro in the Party’s plans for overthrowing the government of the United States.”

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