If Our Leaders Won’t Stop Torture, We Will!
by Kevin Gozstola June 27, 2008
If our leaders won’t
end the torture, my friends in Chicago will. They and others from
across the nation will show through examples why America can not be a
nation that tortures.
The response my friends get when they put on waterboarding
demonstrations and when they put on the jumpsuits is extraordinary.
It’s promising and it gives me hope that people might find the courage
to stand up and demand an end to the torture.
People (in this video) stop to take
pictures. My hope is that they are not just tourists taking pictures of
animals at the zoo. I hope they aren’t just going home to say, “Honey,
you wouldn’t believe it! Today I saw the craziest freaks putting on the
craziest show in the Metra station!”
I hope people stop and think of the horrors of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
I hope people wonder when the madness of torture and prisoner abuse is going to come to an end.
I hope people wish McCain would return
to his anti-torture roots and that Obama would be more forceful against
treating our enemies like dog shit.
Dog shit is the literal translation of
“enemy combatant.” “Enemy combatant” is political cover for torture,
prisoner abuse, and the suspension of habeas corpus.
We get upset about cows that are abused yet haven’t the decency to get upset about abused humans.
Do we have to wait for the People for
Ethical Treatment of Animals to demand that we treat so-called “enemy
combatants” with the same respect that we demand cows be given or are
we going to stand up to this madness?
Our leaders of absolved themselves of
their duty to show moral clarity on this issue. They have allowed our
media news organizations to parade graphics and pundits across news
shows to muddy our thinking about what torture is legal and what
torture is illegal.
A staggering 44%
of Americans think torture of terrorist suspects should be allowed.
This percentage grew from 36%, according to WorldPublicOpinion.org.
Who are we as a nation, as a people,
if we think a suspect deserves torture? What does this mean for
suspects in our own prison system?
This doesn’t even poll people on what
they think of the indefinite imprisonment of terror suspects or “enemy
combatants” without trial. If 44% support torture, how many support no
right to trial for terror suspects?
The culture that defines us is becoming more shallow each day.
Without actions like the ones my
friends in Chicago have engaged in, we face the prospect of becoming a
nation which forsakes humanity.
We must confront those who claim
torture to be permissible and not be afraid to engage in a meaningful
agenda to remove torture as policy from our nation’s domestic and
foreign policy as well as the various organizations that engage in
torture.
Kevin Gosztola goes to Columbia
College in Chicago where he is studying film. He hopes to become a
documentary filmmaker. He is currently working as a production
assistant on a documentary called “Seriously Green” which traces the
development of the Green Party throughout the 2008 election. He has a
passion for journalism and writes articles or press releases in his
spare time. He is a Nader/Gonzalez supporter in this election but
welcomes anyone who wishes to have an open discussion on why he should
support somebody else. Kevin Gosztola is also a student activist
that believes in questioning the way America’s systems work(it’s
electoral system, it’s military-industrial complex, it’s foreign policy
of American exceptionalism, it’s media which has become the Fourth
Branch of government,etc.). He is raising money to bolster several
activism efforts he is engaging in particularly the starting of a media
reform and justice group on Columbia College Chicago’s campus.