Dear Friend and Reader:
As I type these words, I cannot quite yet summon enough belief that this is happening: Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced a hearing on the formation of a special subcommittee to investigate the Bush Administration’s use of torture on prisoners.
Having lived through eight years of the Bush Administration and stuffing down helpless rage watching what Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzales did in the name of 9-11, what Leahy proposes to do is something I thought I’d never see: opening the padlocked door to the darkest room of America’s house. This is the room where we tortured individuals, primarily Muslims, under the banner of 9-11 and national security. To do so, our former leaders worked around national and international laws based on the Constitution and the Geneva Convention to extract information using the most cruel means as possible.
“When historians look back at the last eight years, they will evaluate one of the most secretive administrations in the history of the United States,” Leahy said in remarks provided by his office. “We also know that the past can be prologue unless we set things right. The last administration justified torture, presided over the abuses at Abu Ghraib, destroyed tapes of harsh interrogations, and conducted ‘extraordinary renditions’ that sent people to countries that permit torture during interrogations.”
“Nothing has done more to damage America’s standing and moral authority than the revelations that, during the last eight years, we abandoned our historic commitment to human rights by repeatedly stretching the law and the bounds of executive power to authorize torture and cruel treatment,” Leahy said.
Holding on to a cynicism bred by three decades of panels, subcommittees and special prosecutors investigating everything from Nixon’s enemies list to consensual sex between the president and an intern, I’m a mix of skeptical and hopeful. Will a special committee be enough to bring charges or will there need to be more hearings, more special investigators and more Senate sub-committees? Will the true perpetrators be brought to justice? Will we shine enough light on this dark room so that we can end the barbaric practice of torture and change our ways in handling our security in this modern world without cruelty? Will this be enough to stop it once and for all?
That is a tall order for the day, perhaps the millennium. But Chiron and Neptune, both in Aquarius, give the ground under Leahy’s efforts some movement. Chiron, the awakener and the planet that opens awareness, is conjunct with Neptune, the planet that in its lower vibration represents delusion and lies. Aquarius, the sign of the people, wants answers. And Neptune’s darkened room, haunting the nation’s house for seven years, is now before us. The time seems right for an investigation to take place — unlock the door and turn on the light in that room.
I am of the belief that in order for us to evolve our ways of being in the world, we cannot divorce ourselves from the politics used to govern us. As a person who is spiritual and wants to involve myself with what government does, there is no way out but through it, to demand answers and get the truth. Our government is not above or separate from us. It is us.
To work everyday, to inform and involve as many members of my community as possible in the decisions being made in our name sometimes seems a hopeless task. That is my cynicism speaking. But to get my community enough information to empower us to continue to stay awake, demanding truth and accountability, is my highest goal.
If there’s one issue we must address even more urgently than our economy, it is this one. Our comfort and security these last seven years was based on pain, cruelly inflicted on others in our name. We underwent a period of cultural and societal sleep in order to cope with what was being done. We knew something was happening. And yet we were never told, nor would anybody listen or respond when we asked.
Our sense of economic security, as important as that is, cannot eclipse our spiritual responsibility to the rest of the world and its people. Supporting Leahy’s efforts and demanding that the lights be turned on in the darkest rooms of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib is part of a larger social and spiritual movement to turn on the lights inside ourselves as a nation and a people. We’ve been ruled and abused by fear the last eight years to the point where we buried our highest sense of ourselves. Leahy’s message is a signal for us to relay to the rest of the world: We want you to know we’re awake, we are here, and we are in and with, not against, the world.
Yours & truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
I was reminded today of another time in American history when the prevailing U.S. government condoned and supported evil treatment of prisoners. The movie was about the Africans on the slave ship Amistad (I think the movie was called Amistad) and how they won their freedom. John Quincy Adams, son of President John Adams, and a former President himself, represented them before the Supreme Court. At that time, Adams was a representative in Congress of the state of Massachusetts, where he repeatedly presented antislavery petitions for discussion.
He fought many years against that evil and look how long it took for our countrymen to recognize and accept it as such. No doubt there WILL have to be more hearings, etc., but the day will come when this dark room will be exposed to the light for all to see. Keep the faith.
Fe, if I wasn’t such a down and dirty earth person, law would be my new passion. It was such a delight for me to hire an attorney to do the right thing. It changed my view of the law.
I do challenge town hall, and connect with our local dept of natural resources and the county and local scientists and educational institutions. I am down on the ground slugging it out supporting the local wild spaces, while getting my barter on. Connecting people to the land.
We need you out there.
victoria:
Our base ruling document is our Constitution, and from there are our non-proliferation treaties, environmental accords, weapons testing treaties, economic partnerships with major powers and with economic blocs like NAFTA.
The Geneva Conventions is a human rights pact developed over the twentieth century to regulate the treatment of prisoners of war and enemy combatants. We’re one of nearly two hundred countries who agreed to comply with it.
Since we had an administration who actually said the Constitution was just a piece of paper, I would imagine that an international accord would be even lower in their regard. My take from the current administration is that they’re testing the legal waters of what was done previously, working technically like lawyers to see to what extent of the law was followed and not with the treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
We can only hope that what they’re trying to do is legally try what was done in the past so that it won’t be done again, and that comes with political risk. Believe me, I’ve been watching with great interest what the ACLU is doing and how the Holder DOJ is proceeding. Time will tell.
marymack, if newt don’t make you sick enough, I saw rush’s shiny head yappin away on CNN at mom’s house today. Didn’t listen, but heard the cheering crowds from the other room. My sister is still rootin for the division. They just don’t get it, do they?
Fe, came out here tonite thinking of you. And hey, they finally cleared my phone line of the buzz so I can get through.
What I want to know is what are the documented principles we are following here. I am thinking that what happened with the Cheney Bush regime is that they claimed to be linked to the invisible all knowing God, they claimed that power for themselves. We know that is crazy as evidenced by the supreme court case against god, some guy is suing him.
As we re-infrastructure we have to have a base that is adhered to. We have the constitution, we have the geneva convention? What documents do we look to around the world? What documents are adhered to in other countries and what are the commonalities? I mean we know torturing is wrong.
Greenspan keeps saying that he had faith in the free market system and that he was surprised by the lack of integrity, the thieving. He smiles and says, it’s the human condition and it proves that people need to be governed.
What pieces of paper can we look to, per you? Or is it more complicated than that. The constitution definitely needs to be reinstated as evidenced in the 4th amendment erosion.
In my family situation, the paper that was set up, has proved invaluable (now when it comes out of the wood work). It really brings it home to me.
I LOVE you Fe! I had not heard this before reading your article. Checking with Huffington Post I saw that a hearing has been scheduled next Wednesday, 3/4, at 10 AM. If it started on time, that would give 29+ Taurus rising , with the ruler Venus in the 12th house. The Moon in the 1st house in Gemini trines the big Aquarian group, but forms a T-square with Saturn and the Sun (no surprise there!), as does Pallas Athena.
I vaguely remember a fixed star at 29 Taurus that causes blindness (very “old school”), so that would not be a surprise either! Let’s hope it starts a little late.
Your goal is lofty, but not fluffy; to get us empowering info and keep us awake. Keep on keepin’ on!
Shine a light, big enough for all us to see, in what ever way works … and the old paradigm of polarity is not going to do it, IMHO. As I see a skeeming Newt Gingrich on the cover of tomorow’s NYT magazine, I’m convinced that we’re too evolved for this tired old method to accomplish much. If we’re talking bi-partisan commission (a la 9/11) set up to report solutions, there’s hope in my mind that this move might be exactly what we need and the skies (astrology) support.
Cynicism is for the wealthy.
victoria:
Looks like we have to.
Fe, hear hear. Who’s governing the governors?