Monday, June 1, 2009
Puhleeze
Many moons ago there was a single video of a man being beaten by police officers that not only managed to spark mass conflagrations in the second largest city in the US but also sent out a ripple effect of anger and animosity the likes of which I'd never seen in my lifetime (although I know some here have seen/been in far worse.) But the cultural implications were far reaching and this was borne of just a single image. While the expediencies were actually self-effacing, the failure of our own ideology manifested itself in our own domain and rightfully so. We should be holding ourselves to a higher standard - that's what makes living here really awesome.
But the concept that our endless pursuit of civil liberties and demands for complete transparency aligns with the beliefs of all of those off of our shores is wishful thinking. I'm not making the claim that we should be white-washing reality by any stretch. But reality is that sometimes ideology must be compromised for the greater good. Al-Maliki has simply stated that the truth cannot be handled. Everyone already knows what's happened - let the torture porn find its way into the trash where it belongs. Unless, of course, we're also going to subsequently flood our own population too with the images of 18 year old boys and girls blown to pieces by RPGs to keep our voyeuristic quest for justice from being half-assed.
This embarrasses more than politicians. This sh*t embarrassed me to be human.
For every minute we spend looking into the abyss...
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