For a nation proud of its institutions of fairness and justice, it is unthinkable that Americans would exact, much less allow to be commonplace, acts of cruelty in her name. And yet, justified by fear and bigotry, we have found it easy to do just that. Again. How? Through the use of labels.
By labeling someone an Islamic extremist or a terrorist these days, one can be instantly demoted from the ranks of those worthy of due process, habeus corpus, presumed innocence. Rightfully so? Perhaps. But how do you know someone is a terrorist? And how many Americans take that a step further? Watch in amazement at how easily Americans have been suckered into agreeing, with a wink and a nod, that the labels "Arab" and "Muslim" really are synonymous with "terrorist" and thus worthy of the same aforementioned demotion.
Could one argue that torture is justified to thwart an imminent threat? Perhaps, but such scenarios are rare and short lived---quite possibly no one at Guantanamo ever possessed knowledge worthy of stirring the debate.
Guantanamo prison is a huge, self-inflicted black eye on the image of a supposedly kinder & gentler nation. Yet it continues to operate, as it has for years now, fueled by the labelmakers in the White House, supported by all those other "conservative" Americans, all of whom will insist to their dying breath that their cause justifies the means, just like those who happily and in clear conscience canceled the rights and stripped away the property of an entire ethnic group of its fellow countrymen a few decades ago, taking them from their homes and putting them in concentration camps for no reason other than their heritage.
I'm not referring to the Holocaust. I'm referring to the internment of millions of Japanese Americans in the wake of Pearl Harbor.
Most Americans (not all) look back at those events and shake their heads in shame that we were capable of such acts. And yet today, at this very moment, our government is lashing out with the same blind fervor prevalent during WWII. Will we wait again until a new generation has emerged before we see the shamefulness of our current deeds?
Discuss