Torture!
Should there be a commission? A special prosecutor? A nonpartisan investigation? Congressional hearings?
Torture? Our country is really talking about torture and the involvement and authorization of those uppermost in our nation’s leadership?
How quickly we become diverted into the “how” rather than the “what” or the “why.” The whole thing is absurd.
Why did we feel we had to scrap our values and trample on the Constitution when attacked on our soil? Was there no time for a sober breath, quiet reflection? Or did someone have a bone in his or her craw all along, and this was the chance to flex some young people’s (some other people’s) muscle and show the world. Show them what? That we can’t take a punch?
I’m not an historian, but I do wonder if any other country has become so easily and quickly unhinged when attacked. I do wonder if any country in history has ever had such a disproportionate and misdirected response, the virtual destruction of an uninvolved sovereign nation, the displacement of millions, the deaths of hundreds of thousands. And for what?
I thought I was done ranting on this. It’s most bizarre.
I’m thinking of my diverse afternoon: set the sprinklers in the flower beds, split a bottle of Trappist Ale, watched the Cardinals lose … to the Cubs, some LeBron James … what an athlete, Talladega for a final lap wreck. Time for supper.
At Mass this morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about tomorrow’s talk at the prison.
Hilton Head was not on my “to do” list, but in-laws invited us down for a visit. The routine was simple: eat, find something to do, eat, find another thing to do, eat, repeat as necessary. I must admit we had a wonderful time.
A small island in a lagoon was just across the golf course fairway bordering their villa’s patio. In the evening, the island’s trees would slowly fill with egrets, herons, anhingas. Several of the birds were carrying sticks, reeds, and anything else that appeared to be useful for assembling a nest.
Lunch the first day was at The Crazy Crab at Jarvis Creek. A wonderful broiled sampler of fresh seafood was, after all, a reason for the 860 mile drive. Temperatures were perfect. Bugs were non-existent.
Harbour Town, South Beach Marina, and Sheltered Cove drew our attention on one busy day. Dinner at Little Venice on their outdoor patio in Sheltered Cove was very pleasant . On the one chilly day we headed for Beaufort. A buggy tour hosted by a Percheron named Rocky, who delegated the speaking parts to a very knowledgeable young woman, was a great way to experience the history of the old seaside town.
Very quickly after the tour we found ourselves sitting on the porch of Plums Restaurant for crab cake and shrimp salad sandwiches. We passed on dessert since the Chocolate Tree was a brief walk away. Strolling around the neighborhood took us to The Parish Church of St. Helena, an Episcopal Church founded in 1712. What a peaceful place surrounded by a historic cemetery.
Yesterday, Eric Holder was confirmed as the new Attorney General of the United States. Hopefully this means the turning of a page on an interpretation of human rights law which was at once both vicious and cowardly. I will not miss Alberto Gonzales’ vacuous explanations of why we don’t torture and how “quaint” the Geneva Conventions are.
This brings me to a pet peeve on how waterboarding is often described or defined. In a November 9, 2007 article in the New York Times there was this statement:
The goal of waterboarding, which has been used in interrogations at least since the time of the Spanish Inquisition, is to create the sensation of drowning without causing death.
Numerous times one will hear or read similar statements such as “simulated drowning,” or the “feeling that one is drowning,” or as above, “the sensation of drowning.”
From what I’ve been able to understand about this issue, the person is drowning. So, it is more than a sensation as though one’s imagination is getting the best of him. Nor is it a simulation of what it “might” be like. No, it is what drowning is like. Those who deny or are uncertain whether or not waterboarding is torture may want to give it try.
I’m so glad Mr. Holder spoke up on the issue of torture during his confirmation. Telling it like it is will be most refreshing.
Yesterday, I received in the mail a copy of a reflection by Karl Rahner on prison ministry. If you are engaged in prison ministry in any way, tend toward the incarnational in your theology, and feel that Matthew 25 has something to say to us, then I couldn’t recommend this more fervently.
I will add that some of his language and terminology regarding prisoners is a little off-putting. Labeling others isn’t for me, although I’m certain I have slipped many times, even in these pages.
