There is nothing so bad as shame. We have all had moments when we’ve been
deeply, personally ashamed of ourselves.
In recent weeks, Michelle Obama has been criticized for
implying that there have been moments when she’s
been ashamed of our country, because of the failure of leadership by
President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
Indeed, Fox News bloviator Bill O’Reilly threatened to lead a lynching party – a terror
tactic favored by the Ku Klux Klan - against Michelle Obama.
Of course, Michelle Obama – superlawyer, supermom, and
All-American success story from the South Side of Chicago – symbolizes so much
that can make us pause and have pride in our nation. She embodies the hope and opportunity that
makes America such an inspiring experiment in self-government in the name of
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
So when Nicholas Kristof recently pointed out in the New
York Times that Zimbabwe
has better torture practices than the United States, and that Zimbabwe has better
legal due process toward foreign detainees than the United States, I was
ashamed.
Ashamed that Bush and Cheney are authorizing and directing
the use of barbaric torture methods toward almost certainly innocent people
like Al
Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, who was detained by the United States for
almost six years and tortured. al-Hajj,
who was recently released, was beaten and interrogated 130 times. In the name of the People of the United
States.
I feel deeply ashamed.
This act violates my values. It
violates the values of the United States Constitution. It stands in direct opposition to the values
that we share as progressives: values like community, fairness, security and
liberty.
How do we atone for crimes like these? Crimes done in our names.
To start with, we
need to support a President who will support our shared progressive
values.
We need to begin a withdrawal from Iraq and help that
country secure its borders in the process so that it does not become a failed
state. The Government of We The People
needs to start abiding by U.S. and international law, and indeed become once
again a shining symbol of liberty and democracy to the world by practicing what
it preaches. And we need to remember the
caution of Presidents from Washington to F.D.R. to Eisenhower: the Armed Forces needs to be continue to be under civilian leadership, and the military-industrial
complex should not determine U.S. foreign policy goal-setting.
We also need to stop the waste, fraud and
lethal abuses of military and other contractors. We need to address the real threats: nuclear
weapons, our economic problems and our dependent relationship on Chinese
capital and labor, and the true ticking time-bomb: global warming.
I want to earn my atonement.
Please join me in helping our country atone for the crimes it has
committed in our names.
Join
us.
-
Hugh
