By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr., Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/3/06
Writer Gore Vidal is spot on when he says we live in the United States of Amnesia.
People are not attuned to the lessons of history. Citizenry isn’t as informed as it needs to be.
And news such as last week’s startling turn — a bill that could empower the president to possibly declare even American citizens “unlawful combatants” who may be detained beyond the reach of court review — draws a snooze.
Meanwhile, the country is titillated over the latest distraction du jour: the GOP Florida congressman who sent sexy e-mails to boys.
This is how the president wants it. He’d prefer America keep its eyes on that sex scandal rather than on him and his war on terror.
So long as we are distracted, we tend not to notice important things such as how former Secretary of State Colin Powell recently said the White House wanted to “keep him in his place” as he expressed Iraq misgivings. For stirring things up, President Bush put Powell out.
Distraction makes the public lose track of the erosion of rights that form the bedrock of democracy here. People grow numb to U.S. soldiers losing their lives abroad for a cause that seems adrift.
Some Americans say they are trying real hard to speak out, even if doing so feels like yelling into a Category 5 hurricane.
I bumped into a group of such concerned citizens huddled around a table at a Belltown pastry shop Saturday.
I wanted coffee. They wanted to kvetch.
“We have to do something,” said Cynthia, a Seattle activist who put a green sheet of paper in my hand.
The flier mentioned something I hadn’t heard about — a day of protest this week against the White House.
Thursday’s “Drive Out The Bush Regime” event is being held in more than 150 cities across the country. In Seattle, the day calls for school walkouts and includes a morning rally at the University of Washington, a noon gathering at Cal Anderson Park and an afternoon march to the downtown Federal Building. (More information is available at the Web site worldcantwait.org)
The event has its heart in the right place, but one has to wonder if Seattle — or the nation — cares. An Iraq war with no end in sight has beat people into silence and paralysis. The way the federal government bungled its response to Katrina did make Americans angry, but they quickly returned to regular programming — new episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Lost.”
It would be inspiring to see crowds turn out Thursday the way people did this year to support undocumented Latino workers.
But this being a land of amnesia and apathy, it seems as if people have forgotten the lost art of the war protest, which begs a question.
What good is freedom of speech or freedom of assembly when people seem unwilling to use it at this crucial juncture in history?
“People have felt demoralized,” says Maggie Lawless, a regional organizer of this week’s event. “They feel there is no way they can go up against all of the bad things that are happening.”
People have good reason to put on their protest shoes.
Consider the recent detainee-treatment bill. The terms of the debate on the bill have shifted from it’s not right to torture people to which form of torture is acceptable.
“Waterboarding” — a technique used to simulate drowning — isn’t cool.
Pheew — that’s a relief.
“We have a situation in this country where torture is legal. Habeas corpus is getting ripped away,” Lawless says. “We’ve become a nation of torturers.”
That’s on top of being a nation of fast forgetters.
During the 1970s, a group of policy people — Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger — bridled at restraints being put on presidential decision making.
Today, these grumpy men are older, more devious and not wiser. They’re singing the same tune.
The United States of Amnesia needs to remember. Then, it has to rediscover its protest voice.
When it finds both, it can advise the Bush administration on just where it can go.