Today in the elevator
Dec. 19th, 2005 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusI meet the most interesting people in the elevator in this building.
Today, a man stepped into it, with two small children. Perfectly coherent at first. Kids seemed pretty normal, too, talking laughing, the usual.
Then, around the tenth floor, out of nowhere, the guy turns to the rest of us (myself and three others still in the elevator) and suddenly starts going off. In one big breath, a long rant without pause, something like:
Not a verbatim quote, of course, since I had to wait until I got up here to type it in, but that's the gist of it.
The two kids just kind of got a little quiet. I wasn't sure what to say myself - I mean, I don't disagree with anything he said. The man's a menace. He needs to be brought down. I have no idea what will do it, though. Many years ago, when Clinton was in office, I was actually naive enough to think that merely exposing the truth about corruption and lies and evil doings would be enough for people to demand it stop. But the lies have been exposed. Over and over and over and over again. And people still defend them and follow them. Now we have evidence of children as young as 8 being tortured in secret prisons. Bush has used the words "secret court" in speeches, as if the very concept doesn't betray everything this country pretends to stand for. For three years, we have hundreds of reports of torture occuring in our prisons dismissed by half our population and when photographic evidence of it actually occuring finally comes out people are all too willing to claim the few instances we see must be all there is. They deny it's happening and then they justify it. I never thought I'd see my own country actually divided in a debate as to whether or not to allow torture. The Vice President actually lobbying congress to not pass a bill against it. And they still keep denying it, or justifying it, and now the latest is that it's not really torture unless there's a good chance of someone dying from it, completely ignoring that there've been over 200 deaths from it in Abu Ghraib alone. And that's just the official figures. Well, OK, officially everyone's either died of "natural causes" or "heart attack" ("We're still writing up the report, so we don't know if he hung himself in his cell or if he was shot trying to escape."). Which do you think think this guy died from:
I mean, I'm no coroner, but Natural Causes wouldn't be my first guess.
And now it turns out that not only do we have dozens of secret prisons where unregistered prisoners are kidnapped from their own countries and taken to to be tortured, and the names are never released (how many missing persons reports were followed by planespotters recording CIA airplanes nearby? A question worth asking. How fucked up is that?) and nobody knows how many of them are simply never heard from again.
"Secret courts" Bush actually used the term in his speech. How fucked up can you get?
So, here I am ranting futilely in my blog, after listening to man ranting futiley in the elevator. At least he's reaching people who may not already be aware that there's a problem.
It's the crazy guy yelling at strangers in the street. Is that what it will take to wake them up and make them realize there might be aproblem? Or is the crazy guy in the elevator just to easy to ignore, and hurting the cause by making everyone who agrees with him sound crazy too?
Either way, if I ever hear that some guy from St. Louis was arrested for beheading George Bush and carrying his head home on a silver platter, I won't be horrified.
I'll be fucking applauding.
(And, of course, writing to the new president demanding the guy be given a full pardon. And perhaps the Medal of Honor).
Today, a man stepped into it, with two small children. Perfectly coherent at first. Kids seemed pretty normal, too, talking laughing, the usual.
Then, around the tenth floor, out of nowhere, the guy turns to the rest of us (myself and three others still in the elevator) and suddenly starts going off. In one big breath, a long rant without pause, something like:
Death to George W. Bush! The man is a menace and a threat! I will not rest until I have his head on a silver platter! He is evil! He is the devil! He is bringing destuction to the world! Serve notice! The war is on! We are beset with evil, the worst we've ever faced, and its name is George W. Bush! And I will not rest until I have his head! I am a Negro! I am a Jew! I am Every Man, and I am here to serve notice. The war has begun, and George Bush will be brought down. We will not rest until his head is sitting on a silver platter! Death to George Bush!
Not a verbatim quote, of course, since I had to wait until I got up here to type it in, but that's the gist of it.
The two kids just kind of got a little quiet. I wasn't sure what to say myself - I mean, I don't disagree with anything he said. The man's a menace. He needs to be brought down. I have no idea what will do it, though. Many years ago, when Clinton was in office, I was actually naive enough to think that merely exposing the truth about corruption and lies and evil doings would be enough for people to demand it stop. But the lies have been exposed. Over and over and over and over again. And people still defend them and follow them. Now we have evidence of children as young as 8 being tortured in secret prisons. Bush has used the words "secret court" in speeches, as if the very concept doesn't betray everything this country pretends to stand for. For three years, we have hundreds of reports of torture occuring in our prisons dismissed by half our population and when photographic evidence of it actually occuring finally comes out people are all too willing to claim the few instances we see must be all there is. They deny it's happening and then they justify it. I never thought I'd see my own country actually divided in a debate as to whether or not to allow torture. The Vice President actually lobbying congress to not pass a bill against it. And they still keep denying it, or justifying it, and now the latest is that it's not really torture unless there's a good chance of someone dying from it, completely ignoring that there've been over 200 deaths from it in Abu Ghraib alone. And that's just the official figures. Well, OK, officially everyone's either died of "natural causes" or "heart attack" ("We're still writing up the report, so we don't know if he hung himself in his cell or if he was shot trying to escape."). Which do you think think this guy died from:
I mean, I'm no coroner, but Natural Causes wouldn't be my first guess.
And now it turns out that not only do we have dozens of secret prisons where unregistered prisoners are kidnapped from their own countries and taken to to be tortured, and the names are never released (how many missing persons reports were followed by planespotters recording CIA airplanes nearby? A question worth asking. How fucked up is that?) and nobody knows how many of them are simply never heard from again.
"Secret courts" Bush actually used the term in his speech. How fucked up can you get?
So, here I am ranting futilely in my blog, after listening to man ranting futiley in the elevator. At least he's reaching people who may not already be aware that there's a problem.
It's the crazy guy yelling at strangers in the street. Is that what it will take to wake them up and make them realize there might be aproblem? Or is the crazy guy in the elevator just to easy to ignore, and hurting the cause by making everyone who agrees with him sound crazy too?
Either way, if I ever hear that some guy from St. Louis was arrested for beheading George Bush and carrying his head home on a silver platter, I won't be horrified.
I'll be fucking applauding.
(And, of course, writing to the new president demanding the guy be given a full pardon. And perhaps the Medal of Honor).
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-20 05:00 am (UTC)That said, yea you make very good points.