11 March 2008

Waterboard me, baby

Tonight I sniffed my very wet swimsuit to see if it was still chlorine-y from the disgusting pool at my gym. I got a nosefull of water (duh) and a moment of panic, and then I realized how terrifying waterboarding must be.

I'm not going to describe it but you can find plenty of stuff online.

I was an Amnesty International USA member and group leader for years.

I wrote hundreds of letters to try and get political prisoners released or granted their basic human rights. The success of my group was remarkable. Thanks to the help of our then-congressman, Leon Panetta, five of the cases we worked on were released from prison in short order. It helps to have the Chairman of the House Budget Committee working on your behalf.

I also wrote bales of letters to beg dictators to stop torturing people. I was always SO PROUD that I lived in the U.S., a country that did not believe in torture.

Therefore, I find it an especially bitter irony that my own government is torturing. Not coercively interrogating, as the Associated Press has been calling it lately. Torturing.

Torturing. For what? To stay safe? From who? Dictators and evil people...people who do evil things...like torture?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So depressing that our country has stooped to this. Yesterday the House failed to override Bush's veto on banning waterboarding.

I, too, am ashamed and saddened.
But that sure is a cute kitty.

Jess said...

I am so proud of being an American. I am.

But since moving to Canada, I'm noticing that....things aren't so great anymore.

It frightens me that any America I go home to will have changed so much.

Kizz said...

You write as though you think torture is unconscionable and then you post that picture, of a kitten so intensely cute BUT WE CAN'T RUB ITS FURRY BELLY!!!! That, my friend, is pure torture.

Sorry, had to lighten the mood and all. It's the All Spitzer All the Time Channel over here where I live so I've had a heaping plateful of government hypocrisy the past few days and I'm starting to get full.

meno said...

It scares me who we are becoming when we think this shit is okay.

It's not okay.

mar said...

very depressing with an epilogue of cuteness. i was so beyond disappointed when i read about the idiotic veto.
what i don't understand: if we torture 'them', aren't they just gonna torture 'us'?

Jhianna said...

Yeah, what kizz said. Except I want to snorgle (is so a word!) his belly. (Which means that I gotta put my face on there and feel that soft fur - until the kitten gets annoyed and uses those sharp, sharp claws.)

As for the serious part of the post? Too long to put here, but I promise a post. I make no guarantees that anybody will like it.

the mystic said...

I know what you mean. It's embarrassing except "embarrassing" is too trivial of a word to cover it. Did you read that interview recently with the returning soldier, normal guy who had participated in that? I think it was in Mother Jones maybe, but it was just devestating to read about this boy's experience. (To say nothing of the experience of the people he was partly responsible for torturing.)

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