Higher Standards by John Cullison Blog entry

Blog: John's Blog
by John Cullison

Higher Standards

Now they want to legally torture people?!?

Date: 10/27/2005 5:05:44 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 3248 times

George Bush and Dick Cheney want to legalize torture.

Color me not surprised.

Isn't America supposed to be better than that?

The problem with giving the government powers that apply to "someone else" is that, eventually, those powers get used on everyone.

Some folks might declare that logical fallcy -- the slippery slope fallacy -- but history has shown time and again and again and again that, when it comes to government, slippery slope isn't a logical fallacy, it's a sad fact.

Really, the problem is that this administration cannot make promises for the next administration. No matter how well meaning today's government is or isn't, tomorrow's government isn't bound by today's. So when, for example, the American people were sold on income tax, because it would only apply to the rich, well that didn't last long, did it? The door was opened a crack, and now it affects virtually everyone.

A similar problem occurred with social security. Numbers were assigned to people. Privacy advocates screamed. Their arguments were met with promises that the number would be used only for social security purposes and never for identification. If you have an older social security card -- I do -- it states right on the card, "FOR SOCIAL SECURITY AND TAX PURPOSES -- NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION". And yet now, decades later, it is the primary means of identification. It's not legally possible to get a job without having one. Home loan? Medical insurance? Apartment rental? Not without providing one's social security number. The fact is, it's the basic means of tracking a person, contrary to the promises of the administration that instituted the program.

I shouldn't have to be tracked in order to merely survive in this world, yet this is the system that has been put into place, courtesy of one administration acquiring power that subsequent administrations mis-use.

Today's government makes promises that do not bind tomorrow's government, and so every power granted to the government is potentially another slippery slope, another set of shackles to coerce away our freedom.

Now look at what the current administration wants to do. It wants to be able to declare anyone it wants to as a terrorist, and to treat anyone so labeled as if they have no rights. It wants to find any reason it can to suspend the Constitution and institute martial law. And it wants to authorize the use of torture -- against enemy combatants only, of course.

Of course -- until martial law is declared, the Constitution is suspended, the judicial branch is closed down, and anyone who complains or looks the wrong way is simply labeled a terrorist and then shipped off to be tortured.

In spite of Dick Cheney and George Bush, the simple fact is that we are better than that. Torture is simply wrong, just like rape is wrong, just like murder is wrong, and we have no business supporting and promoting these kinds of actions by our military or intelligence services.

George Bush and Dick Cheney aren't even promoting sub-human behavior, they're promoting sub-animal behavior, because even animals don't torture one another.

Get it?

Demand a higher standard!