Trey Smith
Facing the truth is hard to do, especially the truth about ourselves. So Americans have been sorely pressed to come to terms with the fact that after 9/11 our government began to torture people, and did so in defiance of domestic and international law. Most of us haven’t come to terms with what that meant, or means today, but we must reckon with torture, the torture done in our name, allegedly for our safety.It is said that a mirror doesn't lie -- it merely reflects back what is put in front of it. When that reflection is handsome or beautiful, we can't take our eyes off of it. We strut and preen. It makes us feel so damn good about ourselves. But when the reflection is ugly, we avert our eyes and pretend that the mirror isn't there.
It’s no secret such cruelty occurred; it’s just the truth we’d rather not think about.
~ from When Will Americans Face the Horrific Truth? We're a Nation of Torturers by Bill Moyers ~
As Moyers writes, we have become a nation who sanctions torture. We decry torture when it used by others on Americans, but when the roles are switched, we turn a collective blind eye to what is going on in our names. We go about our daily lives as if nothing nefarious is going on. Many of us delude ourselves when we think, "If WE are doing it, then it can't really be torture, can it?"
The worst part of the situation is that most of us average citizens are powerless to stop what is being done in our name. What can we do if Congress, the police and the judiciary acquiesce to this outlaw behavior? We certainly can't fly to Washington, DC, go to the White House and make a citizen's arrest on the President of the United States!
Heck, if one of us tried to do that, we might find ourselves whisked away by the CIA to a secret prison in a foreign land where we might be...tortured!
The only tool we have in our limited arsenal is our vote. Standing on principle, we can decide to withhold our vote from ANYONE actively complicit in our torture program. However, to make such a commitment, we willingly must stand in front of the mirror to take in the monster we collectively have become...something far too many Americans are not prone to do!
There has got to be much more than casting a vote to change anything. I really don't think our votes even matter any longer. Of course, one must do it regardless just in case it can make a difference.
ReplyDeleteMy point re a person's vote is NOT to cast it. If a person votes in November for Obama OR Romney, it is a vote for torture.
DeleteWhat about voting only for third party or independent candidates? Of course, with the stranglehold the two main parties have on politics, that's about the same as not voting at all.
ReplyDeleteI used to be involved heavily with 3rd parties. That, of course, was the pitch we made: Vote your conscience! Truth be known, as you state above, it amounts to about the same thing as not voting at all.
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