Sunday, March 9, 2008

Bush and Torture

A dog doesn't change its spots, and Bush doesn't change his mind.

I just finished reading an inspiring story about an American pilot shot down in the Pacific, rescued by islanders who befriended him, and for the remainder of his days after returning to the States, he devoted himself to raising moneys and helping the people who saved him.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23538741

"They protected me at great risk; if the Japanese had learned of my presence, they would have tortured everyone until they found me."

Bush has dragged us down into the muck of history, reducing us to a mean-spirited nation stooping to the lowest means possible - torture, and he defends it as an issue of liberty and national security.

Wouldn't Pilate have done the same as he watched the flogging of Jesus?

Is this not what the emperors of Rome maintained in the national interest of empire?

Maybe we are no different than all the other empires of this or any other century.

But I'd like to believe that America the Beautiful is different ... that our values of decency and courage guide this nation, from the citizen eating a lunch-counter hamburger to the highest levels of national government.

If we're truly powerful, we don't have to resort to thuggery.

Torture has no place in the American arsenal!

America the Beautiful ... and let's keep it that way!