(Above: World Can’t Wait organizers in Atlanta visit busy intersections wearing orange jumpsuits)
Dec. 10th & 11th:Wear the orange Guantanamo detainee jumpsuit to school, work, shopping or religious services on Sunday and Monday. Click here to pledge to wear the jumpsuit Order orange jumpsuits Make orange armbands to pass out to people all day, and order orange “No Torture” buttons from our online store. Make flyers to distribute: print double-sided 8.5×11 flyers with the following 2 sides (PDF’s): Write about your experience and send us pictures and video of what it was like to dress as a Guantanamo detainee for a day. Press Release: Guantanamo Detainees Go to Macy’s: street theatre on International Human Rights Day Why I’m taking part:“Torture goes against the basic rights of humanity. It undoes hunreds of years of social progression and goes against every aspect of humanity we have struggled for.” “As a veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, I’ve experienced 1st-hand our senseless atrocies being-committed thruout each theatre-of-operations.” [more “why I’m taking part below] Click here for examples of how people are taking part Recommended Reading:Silence + Torture = Complicity. Text of fullpage ad from World Can’t Wait published in the New York Times Oct. 4. Bill Goodman, Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights: remarks on the Military Commissions Act at World Can’t Wait emergency event Oct. 2nd at Cooper Union in NYC
More “Why I’m Taking Part”: “So that people can no longer be in denial about this terrible crime against humanity…all our humanity.” “Because people need to stand up for what they believe is wrong” “My government is guilty of war crimes” “Torture is UNACCEPTABLE under any circumstances; for this country to sponsor it is contrary to all the premises upon which America was founded.” “I oppose tortore; it’s barbaric and inhuman.” “I want guantanamo bay to close” “I want to part of this solution, and if a girl wearing an orange jumpsuit helps make people realize bad shit is happening in the world, then I would love to do it! The world needs to wake up! (at least ignorant Americans!)” “The world needs to change.” |
Dear Friends,
December 10th is Human Rights Day.
Join me and others in taking action on Sunday, December 10th and Monday, December 11th to bring the U.S. sponsorship of torture into the public view and to demand that it be brought to a halt.
“The United Nations has always condemned torture as one of the vilest acts a human being can perpetrate on another. Torture — defined as the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering to obtain information or a confession, punish, intimidate or coerce — seeks to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being.
“Torture is a crime under international law. According to all relevant instruments, it is absolutely prohibited and cannot be justified under any circumstances. This prohibition forms part of customary international law, which means that it is binding on every member of the international community, regardless of whether a State has ratified international treaties in which torture is expressly prohibited. The systematic or widespread practice of torture constitutes a crime against humanity.”
-from the OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS FACT SHEET
“Let us be clear: torture can never be an instrument to fight terror, for torture is an instrument of terror. The prohibition on torture is well established under international law. It is also unambiguous and absolute. It is binding on all States in all territories under their jurisdiction or effective control. It applies in all circumstances, in times of war as in times of peace. Nor is torture permissible when it is called something else: cruel and inhuman treatment is unacceptable and illegal, irrespective of the name we give it.”
-from the office of the UN General Secretary
“In December of 2001, The Bush Administration implemented the Special Access Program that authorized the secret seizure, detention, and interrogation of persons and subjected them to torture. The torture included but was not limited to water boarding, beatings, the administration of electric shock. Extreme temperatures, denial of pain medication for injuries, severe burning, deprivation of food and water and threats of death and sexual assault of family members.
“In January of 2002 the Bush Administration declared that Geneva Conventions protection will not be honored for the ‘War on Terror.’ In August 2002, the administration attempted to re-define torture to escape liability and/or insure immunity for those who authorized or committed torture.
“Secret detention itself is a form of torture for the person detained and for the families who were faced with a situation that amounted to that of enforced disappearance of an individual.”
In October of this year Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that made legal and sanctioned all of the above. It mandated everything that were in the photos of Abuse at Abu Ghraib “photos that millions found abhorrent and that shocked the conscience of the world. Yet millions of people have learned to live with the knowledge that this is going on by their government, in their name, and have not taken the responsibility as citizens and people residing in the United States to stop it. Putting a stop to torture was not an election issue this fall and no leading Democrat or Republican since has stated that this will be immediately overturned and basic laws and standards of human rights and decency adhered to.
If War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity are not reason enough to impeach the Bush Administration what is?
Your Government is openly torturing people, and justifying it. Your Government is the most powerful purveyor of torture in the world today. History is already littered with examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they every imagined. It is up to us – in our millions and each one of us – to take responsibility NOW to change the course of history. To bring TORTURE and the whole Bush program to a HALT. This Regime does not represent us and we – through mass protest and society wide repudiation – will drive it from office.
On December 10th and 11th, bring the systematic and widespread practice of torture by the U.S. into the public view . Act up to bring this crime against humanity and the Bush Regime to a halt.
Debra Sweet
National Director
World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime
Pledge to wear the orange jumpsuit:
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Examples of how people across the country are taking part:
In Seattle, several students at a local college are wearing orange jumpsuits to their classes on Monday, and a local journalist will be “shadowing” them throughout the day and reporting on it.
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At one state university, students are planning to do a mock water-boarding in the middle of campus.
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Debra Sweet (WCW national director) and Sunsara Taylor (WCW advisory board) decided to finally take Bush up on his insistence that we go shopping, lest the “terrorists win.” They are inviting others to join them in wearing orange jumpsuits while shopping at Macy’s in the middle of New York’s busy holiday season. Click here to read a letter from Sunsara Taylor.
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A woman in Los Angeles will be buying an all-day bus pass and travelling around the city wearing an orange jumpsuit. People will get on the bus that day and see the reality of the Bush regime’s torture on the seat next to them.
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A father has bought 30 jumpsuits for his son and friends to wear to their high school on Dec. 11.
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At UC-Berkeley, December 9th is a busy studying-for-finals day, and the library is packed with students. Several students organizing with World Can’t Wait will be in the library for much of the day wearing orange jumpsuits and hoods, studying for finals, while others are outside doing street theatre and leafleting with the orange jumpsuits on.
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On Dec. 10 in Paragould, Arkansas people will be in orange jumpsuits on the roadside leading to the WalMart that many people in the town and surrounding area shop at on a Sunday.
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In Kalamazoo, MI, the local World Can’t Wait chapter is inviting others to join them in a full day of public opposition to legalized torture. They will be wearing orange jumpsuits and hoods all day on Dec. 10, and will start with a vigil at noon at the federal building, followed by a protest outside of CrossRoads Mall (S. Westnedge entrance), and then an event in the evening titled “Bush on Trial: Teach-in Against Torture” at Kraftbrau Brewery at 5pm. You can email kalamazoo@worldcantwait.org for more details.
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In Chicago, the World Can’t Wait chapter is organizing people to wear orange jumpsuits on Sunday in the Loop (a busy shopping area downtown) from 1:30-3:30pm in front of the Art Institute, 111 S. Michigan Ave at Adams St. Plans are being made for street theater to put on trial key figures of the Bush regime, with a view to turning bystanders into participants. Anyone up for “jury duty”?
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