I, Prisoner
I was thinking about the Bush Administration's reluctant admission that the Gitmo "detainees" (a sanitized word for "prisoner") may be entitled to the basic human rights accorded by the Geneva Convention. This change of stance comes a few days after the Supreme Court made that decision for the Administration anyway. It's like being fired and saying, on your way out, "Oh yeah, well I quit!"
There seems to be a general misunderstanding about who is preotected by Constitutional rights, whether international prisoners being held in Cuba or a convict in Alabama. Yes, the individual prisoner is protected, but in the long run, he is not the main beneficiary.
It is our society that benefits. Now, before you roll your eyes and think I'm just another liberal softie, please think about a world without rights for individuals. It shouldn't be too hard: just imagine Nazi Germany, aparthied South Africa, or our own country just a few short years ago in the Jim Crow era. When individuals are made prisoners, denied basic rights of representation, a fair trial, and decent treatment, we are all cheapened, coarsened, and made a poorer country. Also, of course, no one of us can feel secure if we know the next mistreated prisoner could be us.
So next time you hear a prisoner complain about a lack of due process or cruel and unusual punishment, forget about the prisoner and think about yourself. As in so many political contexts, this is an instance in which educated self-interest should lead to a just result.
posted by Charles N. Geilich @ 10:37 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Ahhh, what a powerful tool google is. For instance:
Googling Charles Geilich ammases 103 legitimate hits, while googling Corey Chaplan gets two. One female volleyball player and one director of movies in which mother would not aprove, but I digress.
I for one am not shocked at the govenerment treatment of said "Detainees" at Gitmo. The United States government has used war in the past as an excuse to pick and chose which laws to enforce or ignore. Even against it's own people as in the case of the Japanese interment camps. Long ago as they where, it is still a stain on our civil liberties history.
Eventualy though those stains get bleached and wrung out to dry. As is the case in the Supreme Court's decision. It seams that the ACLU has finaly turned the tides in favor of justice.
Not to say that all of the people inprisoned at Gitmo are as guilt-free as a Lean Cuisine. Im sure a vast majority are guilty of crimes of some sort. Attacking our military forces in afganastan, in a trained and well geared fasion. Wait...was that a US made M-16 in that terriost hands?!?
It really all boils down to the golden rule anyway. Would you want to be inprisoned on an island in the middle of nowhere disallowed basic amenities such as human interaction, religion, representation?
P.S. Glad to be the first comment!
I hope I didn't give the impression that I was surprised by our government's actions at Guantanamo. At this point, I expect the worst from the Bush administration. So, no, I'm not surprised, just disgusted and angry at what our President is doing to our country.
And you're absolutely right about applying the Golden Rule; a better, simpler rule of ethics has yet to be invented.
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