On this day, the day of civil rights pioneer Rosa Park’s funeral, we are informed by Dana Priest, writing in the Washington Post, of secret CIA prisons around the world that are beyond the reach of human rights organizations which could advocate on behalf of those who are experiencing abuse and torture that we can’t even begin to imagine if they were allowed access. They’re not – because the Bush administration prefers to hide its ugly, private sins in the name of “freedom”. Their actions are no better than the white-sheeted cowards of the KKK who tortured and lynched African-Americans in the name of power and “purity” for so many decades before public outrage finally took hold.
Those secret detainees have no Rosa Parks. None are free to take their place at the front of the bus in order to spark a rights revolution in their name. The only voice they have is ours.
Just as African-Americans fought so hard for so long in the background to become equal citizens in the face of overwhelming odds only to finally be represented so publicly by that one courageous woman in one simple but profound act, so are we all called to act on behalf of those that US laws continue to treat as non-persons: those being held in dark, horrifying dungeons in foreign countries where the crimes of the Bush administration are perpetuated without remorse or conscience.
No more. NO MORE.
Any US citizen who remains silent in the face of these crimes is complicit. Any citizen of the world who does not stand up and shout on behalf of these voiceless victims has no claim to freedom in their own life because we are all one people, joined by a responsibility to promote humanity at its best. When we fail to do so, we surrender our right to be truly free.
Mrs Rosa Parks made her mark. Will you?
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
– His Holiness the Dalai Lama
