Deja Vu all over again
I started Blogging back in May of 2005. The reason was that I was deeply concerned over the direction this country was taking and was being promoted by the Bush Administration. Today, a new story was reported by the NY Times. Here is their quote: "Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001."
The story is important to read so please click on this link and read it before you read any additional comments.
Back when I started Blogging in 2005, one of my first Blogs seemed appropriate to repost here today, given I was concerned then about violations to the Geneva Convention. If I, a person of average intelligence could deduce then, something was drastically wrong with our government, as so many others concluded, how did we slip into so much compliance and allow this degradation of our country to take place? Why weren't there protesters in the streets, as there had been in prior years? Why have the American people gone so silent and labeled someone like Dennis Kucinich "a kook," when he has shown more backbone than most of Congress and all the Senate? Here is what I wrote back in 2005:
May 2005. Where are all the street protesters?
As we approach June 4th , the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, and I reflect on our own history of student protests, it got me to wonder where are today's student protesters, as certainly there are many disturbing trends in America today, threatening the very fabric of our democracy as we search for bipartisanship in Congress and a more humble America in our rhetoric abroad and at home. But we still seem very arrogant as a nation with little understanding of the very cultures we are trying to change. I am not talking about Iraq here. I am talking about the "Divided" States of America, that's right, the good ole D.S.A., one nation, (partly) under God, very divisible, with liberty (until we can change those Senate Rules), and justice for (a few).
There was once a time of idealism, of standing up and being taken seriously by society, a conscience for all of us. This was the time of Student protests. Students protested the Vietnam war, the May 4th, 1970 Kent State shootings, Tiananmen Square and support for democracy in China, the outrage at the Chinese Government’s reaction to the protests and some recent protests of the Iraq war in selective cities.
As a nation, we have a lot to be angry about with our government. First there was the misleading “intelligence” of the lead up to the Iraq invasion and then the letters of former White House General Counsel and current Attorney General, Roberto Gonzales, regarding new interpretations of what is and what is not torture. Then the pronouncements by our President that certain prisoners would not necessarily be treated in a manner consistent with the Geneva Convention. Add to this more recent assertion about additional abuse in Guantanamo and the shameless deceit to get recruits on High School campuses to enlist, and you wonder what it takes to get Student protesters engaged again. There have been some protests of the Iraq war but they fade away quickly. What captures the focus and attention of the bulk of our students today? Could it be survival, as the job market still looks bleak? Or is it just apathy? What do you think? I don’t think they care much about what the Senate is proposing in its Nuclear Option to end the filibuster and allow judicial nominations through who by the minority see as extreme in their views. Stay tuned."
The story is important to read so please click on this link and read it before you read any additional comments.
Back when I started Blogging in 2005, one of my first Blogs seemed appropriate to repost here today, given I was concerned then about violations to the Geneva Convention. If I, a person of average intelligence could deduce then, something was drastically wrong with our government, as so many others concluded, how did we slip into so much compliance and allow this degradation of our country to take place? Why weren't there protesters in the streets, as there had been in prior years? Why have the American people gone so silent and labeled someone like Dennis Kucinich "a kook," when he has shown more backbone than most of Congress and all the Senate? Here is what I wrote back in 2005:
May 2005. Where are all the street protesters?
As we approach June 4th , the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, and I reflect on our own history of student protests, it got me to wonder where are today's student protesters, as certainly there are many disturbing trends in America today, threatening the very fabric of our democracy as we search for bipartisanship in Congress and a more humble America in our rhetoric abroad and at home. But we still seem very arrogant as a nation with little understanding of the very cultures we are trying to change. I am not talking about Iraq here. I am talking about the "Divided" States of America, that's right, the good ole D.S.A., one nation, (partly) under God, very divisible, with liberty (until we can change those Senate Rules), and justice for (a few).
There was once a time of idealism, of standing up and being taken seriously by society, a conscience for all of us. This was the time of Student protests. Students protested the Vietnam war, the May 4th, 1970 Kent State shootings, Tiananmen Square and support for democracy in China, the outrage at the Chinese Government’s reaction to the protests and some recent protests of the Iraq war in selective cities.
As a nation, we have a lot to be angry about with our government. First there was the misleading “intelligence” of the lead up to the Iraq invasion and then the letters of former White House General Counsel and current Attorney General, Roberto Gonzales, regarding new interpretations of what is and what is not torture. Then the pronouncements by our President that certain prisoners would not necessarily be treated in a manner consistent with the Geneva Convention. Add to this more recent assertion about additional abuse in Guantanamo and the shameless deceit to get recruits on High School campuses to enlist, and you wonder what it takes to get Student protesters engaged again. There have been some protests of the Iraq war but they fade away quickly. What captures the focus and attention of the bulk of our students today? Could it be survival, as the job market still looks bleak? Or is it just apathy? What do you think? I don’t think they care much about what the Senate is proposing in its Nuclear Option to end the filibuster and allow judicial nominations through who by the minority see as extreme in their views. Stay tuned."
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Bush, Geneva Convention, Guantanamo, Red Cross, torture, War Crimes
posted by Charles Amico at 6:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home