Dear Friends,
As we get ready to celebrate the Memorial Day Holiday, it seems like a really good time to remember what the United States of America is all about ... the freedoms, the respect for life, the joy of choosing one's destiny. When I think of the USA, I do not think torture of another human being under any circumstances is a right that I or any other American can claim.
Growing up in the Mid West, I very clearly remember the study in history classes about World War II. I used to say to myself how proud I was to come from a country where people would never torture other people for any reason. Living in a democracy I thought meant respecting the humanity of all people regardless of who they were or what they had done.
When I got older I actually got involved in the prison movement, in the criminal justice system and in promoting humane treatment of all institutionalized persons. This included day care centers for children, nursing homes for the elderly, mental health facilities for the unfortunate, even abandoned children and adults with disabilities. Through organizations, research and personal investigations, I can tell you - people are tortured by others who think they are justified in using any means to get to the end results - they all claim it is for the best. Torture is never, never a justifiable means!
If you want to learn more about what goes on in our country - join Amnesty International, or visit your prisons, or find out how children are being treated in the foster care system of your state. Then you might understand how the former Vice-President Dick Chaney justifies torture and gets away with it. He has a lot of company. Justification does not make torture right.
President Obama really said everything right today in his speech about the evils of living in a democracy like the United States and at the same time allowing torture to exist as our way of "protecting our country." We cannot protect our selves from evil by being the very instrument of evil - any where - in our homes, in our institutions, in our prisons, in our schools, in our churches and justifying the use of torture, beatings, cruel and humiliating actions as a way of controlling other human beings.
Please whenever you have the chance - take the time to refuse to be a part of justifying torture for whatever reason. Let the only instruments we use when we are in charge of another human being - be the instrument of peace.
What do you think?
Write to amber@ambersilverstar.com
Celebrate your country this weekend. Happy Memorial Day.
Amber Silverstar
