Thanks, Bea!
Inauguration day, I was working late-we got out of the practical room just shortly before 7, which is when Obama’s swearing in was to happen. Bea asked why I wasn’t staying, and I told her the truth-because I didn’t want to have to take a taxi home. But the students were watching the whole inauguration process avidly and of their own volition and it seemed silly to go home just now and then wait until my internet connection was good enough that I could get Obama’s speech on YouTube in less than a day. After he won the election it took me about a week to get access to the speech. And that was only because I spent all of each of the intervening days attempting it.
Thanks to the bug Bea put in my ear, I asked David if it would be ok to stay and if he’d check with the driver that we wouldn’t be left in the cold if we did stay. The driver told David that he could wait for us until 8. Turns out he was lying (he was out dropping the relief driver when we were ready to go, and then we had to drop students at the mental hospital before doubling back to drop us at our houses), but that’s probably for the best.
Oh, my students were so excited. There were bits they laughed at-I’m not sure if they understood or not, since their laughter often seemed entirely divorced from the speech. A few of them were recording President Obama, as seen through a wall of shoulders and a TV and 10,000 miles, on their phones. Which could only record maybe 30 seconds at a time, and so they were constantly trying to get the phone to go again. They all cheered when Obama talked about the importance of education, and when he said, “To the people of poor nations,” several students yelled, “Malawi!” and pumped their fists in the air. When the President continued to say, “we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds,” they were excited (not the least because of the cholera outbreaks in Lilongwe and Blantyre just before Christmas) and cheering. They also cheered when he said that our schools fail too many, I think because, with the junior certificate results out and showing that more students failed (and so can’t pass on to secondary school) than last year, it’s a topic close to their hearts.
My students were made quite distraught by the idea of me peering over and around them, so they kept trying to get me to move up front, “Madam, it’s ok, you can come up closer,” but since I wasn’t sure when we’d be leaving I had to decline. The only down moment was when one of the Dutch students staying in the hostels tried to get everybody to stand while Obama was being sworn in. I pointed out that if they did the rest of us wouldn’t be able to see and she was quiet. I really don’t get why people 10,000 miles away need to stand to show respect. I think their excitement and choice to watch shows plenty of respect.
I loved that he mentioned non-believers just as if they’re like anybody else. I loved that he talked about how
our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead . . . our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
I thought the sour look on Bush’s face was hilarious when Obama talked about the hard decisions that hadn’t been made.
I nearly cried when he talked about how amazing we can be. He wasn’t trying to evoke fear or greed, he wasn’t saying that our awesomeness resides in the dollar in our pocket, he was talking about our indomitable spirit, about how we will survive, how we will not be bowed by fear, and that we will offer an open hand. We are not enemies of an unforgiving world but the amazing product of the entire human race. And he didn’t shirk from talking about what we must do. How we must work for this amazing vision. We have not earned it just because we are lucky enough to be born Amercan.
One of the things I found most moving in the address was when Obama said,
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.
And yet I couldn’t help but find my joy on hearing that tempered by my worry over whether or not that’s how we intend to act. It was nice, to hear a politician say it, and especially say it strongly rather than in the sort of half-assed apologetic way most politicians have said it so far. But there are actions that need to come along with that. One of those actions is to charge George W. Bush with war crimes.
This is not petty partisanship. According to article 1.1 of the UN Convention Against Torture, which was signed by the U.S. under that great liberal nutjob, Ronald Reagan,
For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
It goes on to say, in Article 2, that
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
So, here’s what we know:
(Thanks to Glenn Greenwald for giving me a great starting point for finding all this info)
Obama has said that he wants to move forward, not look back. But, as my mom (and before her some other dead, famous playwright guy) says, “what’s past is prologue.” We cannot build a clear and hopeful future on a rotten and crumbling foundation. We cannot pretend that the rule of law is important to us when we refuse to obey the rule of law because it’s uncomfortable or might make us look bad. We cannot “choose our better history,” and “that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness,” is exposed as a lie when those who are powerful are excused from responsibility for their actions.
It might be petty partisanship if no case could be made against Bush and his administration. But the case can be made and it deserves to be investigated as such. It should be an open, independent, and transparent process-you know, all those things we insist on in fledgling democracies. It shouldn’t be undertaken with vengeance in mind, but with justice, and truth-seeking. We look down on those countries that harbored Pinochet; we think we’re above that kind of behavior. So the time has come to prove it. We don’t want to harbor a war criminal in our bright, shiny, and hopeful new world, do we?
Thanks to the bug Bea put in my ear, I asked David if it would be ok to stay and if he’d check with the driver that we wouldn’t be left in the cold if we did stay. The driver told David that he could wait for us until 8. Turns out he was lying (he was out dropping the relief driver when we were ready to go, and then we had to drop students at the mental hospital before doubling back to drop us at our houses), but that’s probably for the best.
Oh, my students were so excited. There were bits they laughed at-I’m not sure if they understood or not, since their laughter often seemed entirely divorced from the speech. A few of them were recording President Obama, as seen through a wall of shoulders and a TV and 10,000 miles, on their phones. Which could only record maybe 30 seconds at a time, and so they were constantly trying to get the phone to go again. They all cheered when Obama talked about the importance of education, and when he said, “To the people of poor nations,” several students yelled, “Malawi!” and pumped their fists in the air. When the President continued to say, “we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds,” they were excited (not the least because of the cholera outbreaks in Lilongwe and Blantyre just before Christmas) and cheering. They also cheered when he said that our schools fail too many, I think because, with the junior certificate results out and showing that more students failed (and so can’t pass on to secondary school) than last year, it’s a topic close to their hearts.
My students were made quite distraught by the idea of me peering over and around them, so they kept trying to get me to move up front, “Madam, it’s ok, you can come up closer,” but since I wasn’t sure when we’d be leaving I had to decline. The only down moment was when one of the Dutch students staying in the hostels tried to get everybody to stand while Obama was being sworn in. I pointed out that if they did the rest of us wouldn’t be able to see and she was quiet. I really don’t get why people 10,000 miles away need to stand to show respect. I think their excitement and choice to watch shows plenty of respect.
I loved that he mentioned non-believers just as if they’re like anybody else. I loved that he talked about how
our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead . . . our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
I thought the sour look on Bush’s face was hilarious when Obama talked about the hard decisions that hadn’t been made.
I nearly cried when he talked about how amazing we can be. He wasn’t trying to evoke fear or greed, he wasn’t saying that our awesomeness resides in the dollar in our pocket, he was talking about our indomitable spirit, about how we will survive, how we will not be bowed by fear, and that we will offer an open hand. We are not enemies of an unforgiving world but the amazing product of the entire human race. And he didn’t shirk from talking about what we must do. How we must work for this amazing vision. We have not earned it just because we are lucky enough to be born Amercan.
One of the things I found most moving in the address was when Obama said,
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.
And yet I couldn’t help but find my joy on hearing that tempered by my worry over whether or not that’s how we intend to act. It was nice, to hear a politician say it, and especially say it strongly rather than in the sort of half-assed apologetic way most politicians have said it so far. But there are actions that need to come along with that. One of those actions is to charge George W. Bush with war crimes.
This is not petty partisanship. According to article 1.1 of the UN Convention Against Torture, which was signed by the U.S. under that great liberal nutjob, Ronald Reagan,
For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
It goes on to say, in Article 2, that
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
So, here’s what we know:
- Susan Crawford, the convening authority of military commissions, has acknowledged that we have tortured, and has thrown out a case because of it. (She still thinks this guy is a threat, and is throwing out the case not because of his innocence, but because you can’t violate the rule of law and then continue as if you haven’t. She is brave to have done so. It should not seem brave though, because that is the moral, ethical, and legal way to behave. The fact that following the law seems nearly radical should give us all pause.)
- Waterboarding, which makes a victim believe they are going to die, is basically a mock execution, according to John Sifton of Human Rights Watch. Mock executions are illegal under international law. The U.S. prosecuted some Japanese after WWII for war crimes because they waterboarded American soldiers. It’s torture if it’s done to me but not if it’s done to you is not valid law, no matter what Mukasey says.
- The proposed-incoming Attorney General, Eric Holder, has said that waterboarding is torture, and that we need to live up to our own high standards, even in the face of terrorism. Senate Republicans are worried he might prosecute people who participated in torture and thinks they should be excused if they thought it was legal, in spite of the Convention Against Torture articles, and so they’re holding up his confirmation.
- Bush admitted to personally authorizing the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The articles of the UN Convention Against Torture above say that being told it’s ok is no excuse. If Bush had been told by some lawyer that he didn’t have to pay taxes and the lawyer was wrong, Bush would still be on the hook (well, except that he’s a Bush. He’d still be on the hook if he were Joe Schmoe.). Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Willful ignorance of the law is less of an excuse.
- Manfred Nowak, the leading U.N. official in charge of torture conventions, says that Obama has no choice but to initiate war crimes proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld.
(Thanks to Glenn Greenwald for giving me a great starting point for finding all this info)
- If no other reason suits you, try this one: We don’t treat others humanely just because they deserve it for having the luck of being born human; we treat others humanely because to treat others inhumanely gives permission for us to be treated inhumanely, and because more importantly, it makes us inhuman. It is a self-preserving action, to do the right thing.
Obama has said that he wants to move forward, not look back. But, as my mom (and before her some other dead, famous playwright guy) says, “what’s past is prologue.” We cannot build a clear and hopeful future on a rotten and crumbling foundation. We cannot pretend that the rule of law is important to us when we refuse to obey the rule of law because it’s uncomfortable or might make us look bad. We cannot “choose our better history,” and “that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness,” is exposed as a lie when those who are powerful are excused from responsibility for their actions.
It might be petty partisanship if no case could be made against Bush and his administration. But the case can be made and it deserves to be investigated as such. It should be an open, independent, and transparent process-you know, all those things we insist on in fledgling democracies. It shouldn’t be undertaken with vengeance in mind, but with justice, and truth-seeking. We look down on those countries that harbored Pinochet; we think we’re above that kind of behavior. So the time has come to prove it. We don’t want to harbor a war criminal in our bright, shiny, and hopeful new world, do we?