This morning I heard the Morning Joe anchorette -- the blond leggy talking head who seems to grace these shows -- say something like, "the people who are opposed to torture." This caught me up short. She so casually stated that America tortured people as if that were normal, and for the way it made those who oppose torture sound out of the mainstream.
Can it be that our generation's contribution to American history is the reversal of a policy in place since George Washington that America will not torture as a matter of officially accepted policy? Will we leave that stain on the shining city on the hill?
As Lady Macbeth would say: Out damned spot! Out I say.
And yet the spot remains. Who'd have thought there'd be so much blood in it?
2 comments:
It seems there's a lot of things we say we do or don't do in America that have little to do with the reality. I think we've always tortured but this is the first time it's really being acknowledged. Is that growth? Not if there's no consequence.
I think it's the first time torture has become the official policy of the United States.
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