torture is not a partisan issue

torture is not a partisan issue

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Torture is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of conscience. It’s not about citing extreme circumstances, but about applying a universal standard of human ethics. It’s not about finding ways to win the war on terrorism, but about not losing our souls in the process.

Torture is not a partisan issue. Consider the comments of Lindsey Graham, Republican senator from South Carolina, during the confirmation hearing for Michael Mukasey:

If we allow our executive in certain rare circumstances to use techniques like waterboarding, then what do we say when a downed airman is in the hands of another enemy in another war, and they argue, “Well, I had to do this, because I needed to know when the next air attack was going to occur.”

The NPR story containing this quote from Sen. Graham also supplies some background on “waterboarding.”

Waterboarding is a process of controlled drowning used in the Spanish Inquisition … For more than a century, it has been considered a war crime by the United States and prosecuted as such. The top legal officers of all the military services have testified that waterboarding is illegal under U.S. and international law.

If we have called it torture for more than a century and if our legal experts in the military still call it torture, then isn’t is torture? And if we say we don’t torture, why can’t we say that we categorically reject waterboarding as aid to interrogation? Because we don’t want to let detainees know what is or is not in our interrogation arsenal? Because we want them and the rest of the world to think we might indeed use torture?

Torture is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of conscience … of personal conscience and of national conscience.

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not the end of the world

not the end of the world

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What Manny Ramirez said after the Red Sox fell behind to the Cleveland Indians three games to one:

We’re just going to go have fun and play the game. That’s it. If we go play hard and the thing doesn’t come like it’s supposed to come, we’ll move on. We’ll come next year. Why should we panic? We’ve got a great team. If it doesn’t happen, good. We’ll come next year and try to do it again.

We’re confident every day. It doesn’t matter how things go for you. We’re not going to give up. We’re just going to go and play the game, like I’ve said, and move on. If it doesn’t happen, so who cares? There’s always next year. It’s not like the end of the world or something.

What a refreshing attitude! Here’s an elite athlete who remembers it’s a game, a player who goes out everyday and does his best, but remembers it’s supposed to be fun. Instead of criticizing Manny for “not taking it seriously,” we should be thanking him for reminding us as fans and as human beings to keep things in proper perspective.

P.S. Manny went out Thursday night, played hard, had fun … and helped the Red Sox beat the Indians in game five 7-1.

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chattering and scampering

chattering and scampering

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From inward/outward: The Worrier’s Guild by Philip Deaver

Today there is a meeting of the
Worriers’ Guild,
and I’ll be there.
The problems of Earth are
to be discussed
at length
end to end
for five days
end to end
with 1100 countries represented
all with an equal voice
some wearing turbans and smocks
and all the men will speak
and the women
with or without notes
in 38 languages
and nine different species of logic.
Outside in the autumn
the squirrels will be
chattering and scampering
directionless throughout the town
because
they aren’t organized yet.

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just bullies

just bullies

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Our nation’s psyche is shaped by two defining archetypes: the cowboy and the preacher; the macho hero and the principled idealist; the adventurer and the reformer; the Louisiana Purchase and the Bill of Rights; Christopher Columbus and Thomas Jefferson; John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart; Douglas MacArthur and Martin Luther King.

The face we present to the rest of the world is spawned of the delicate balance between these two personae, these two values. We swagger … and we stand on principle. We fight for freedom … and we defend human rights. We are the biggest … and we are the best. We overcome all enemies … and we uphold the rule of law.

Much of our internal political debate can be framed in terms of these two defining ideas. When kept in balance, we manage to win with dignity, to earn respect even as we impose our will, to forge new friendships instead of creating new enemies.

But when the one American vision is divorced from the other, when the rule of law is set aside “out of necessity” in order to “win,” then we are seen as bullies. And that is indeed what we are … just bullies.

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seeing gray

seeing gray

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Writing in Sojouorners magazine (In the prison-industrial complex, is there hope for redemption?), Nancy Hastings Sehested, a Baptist minister and prison chaplain, describes a North Carolina maximum-security prison this way:

Colorful flowers mark the path to the gatehouse. Then the stripping away begins in earnest. It is a gray day every day in this prison. Gray walls, gray floors, and gray ceilings. The gray uniforms worn by the men can fade their faces into obscurity. The blue uniforms of the staff can create the same effect. Holding a gaze is crucial in seeing the person beyond the clothing. A simple “hello” can seem like a subversive act in a place where everyone is defined by role.

Now I know that prisons are not meant to be “cushy” places, and that justice — at least in part — is about punishment and the deserved forfeiture of rights and privileges. Nevertheless, after reading Sehested’s description, I found myself wondering what gray on gray on gray does to the human soul?

In creating a lifeless and colorless and despair-inducing environment, what do we hope to accomplish? It seems to me that such an environment would readily foster nihilistic thoughts and desperate acts and a soul-killing sense of resignation, hopelessness, and resentment.

I know what the colors and scents of a garden can do for my soul. I know how stepping outside and watching the ebb and flow of tree limbs in the wind or hearing the chatter of birds or taking my dog for a walk in the early morning sunlight can lift my spirits.

Justice — at least in part — is also about rehabilitation and restoration, and it seems to me that those things that can lift spirits and renew a love for life and restore a sense of beauty could provide invaluable aid in turning inmates lives around. I am no corrections expert, but I don’t see how we make a man or woman more human or more hospitable by sequestering them in an inhuman and inhospitable environment.

Within those prison walls, we literally have a captive audience. What a teaching opportunity! What an opportunity — not to confirm the fatalistic notion that the spoils go to the strongest and the “baddest” — but to show another way to measure value, another way to enjoy beauty, another way to satisfy the longings of the human soul. Only God can finally satisfy those longing, but it is the colors and scents and textures and vistas of all of creation that point us to God.

Maybe colorful flowers should mark the paths inside the prison walls, too …

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the beautiful game

the beautiful game

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They call it the beautiful game.

I am a big fan of soccer, a longtime player and coach, and a big fan of women’s soccer and the United States national team in particular. My daughter (whom I coached and is herself an equally avid fan) attended World Cup games in 1999 in Chicago and in 2003 in Boston. We did not fly to China to witness any of this year’s World Cup matches, but we are watching and taping every US contest. We will be eagerly following their quarterfinal match this Saturday against England.

I am a diehard US fan, but I must admit that Marta and the entire Brazilian women’s national team know how to play the game with style! Marta scored two goals in their 4-0 victory against China, the host team, two of the most spectacular goals I have seen in women’s soccer. Take a look …

It is a beautiful game!

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enemies of freedom

enemies of freedom

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How can we win against the “enemies of freedom” while proving to be an enemy of freedom ourselves???

Senate Rejects Expanding Detainee Rights: The US Senate failed to break a Republican filibuster blocking a vote on an amendment to restore habeas corpus rights to terrorism suspects. Democratic senators were joined by six Republicans in voting to close debate and bring the amendment to a vote, but still fell four votes short.

We cannot claim to be defenders of freedom and of the universal application of the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all human beings, if we so readily deny the most basic means of legal recourse to any person or class of persons.

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a cure worse than the disease

a cure worse than the disease

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Chaplains have been systematically removing a wide range of religious books and tapes from the libraries of federal prisons under a directive issued by the Bureau of Prisons. The aim is to prevent federal prisons from becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups. The banned materials include books by eminent protestant theologians (Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth) and contemporary evangelical leaders (Robert Schuller, Rick Warren).

Once more, our frantic response to a real, but elusive and unpredictable, terrorist threat has done more harm to human liberty and quality of life than any terrorist could. We are denying religious freedom, breeding bewilderment and resentment among the prison population, and cutting inmates off from resources that could aid in rehabilitation and positive spiritual development.

Sojourners is sponsoring a letter writing campaign to end the censorship. You may sign on at: Stop Censoring Prison Libraries.

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