I was listening to NPR about noon central and caught an interview with a guy (didn’t catch the name) who had been held in Guantanamo Bay by the President and Vice-President of Torture. I didn’t catch how or if this guy described his treatment. Suffice it to say that being detained for who knows what for who knows how long, without access to a lawyer or any means of letting one’s family know one’s condition would be, well, like how Senator McCain spent seven years of his life in a North Vietnamese camp. Or, like the American embassy staff held hostage by the lunatic right wing Islamic fundamentalists in Iran.
This detainee, who is now out, wrote several poems while in captivity. Human, touching poems, one of which was written in repsonse to a poem written by this man’s female jailer who was a reservist from Alabama. She was also plucked out of her life and stuck in Guantanamo for who knows how long. At least she knew the why and had access to her family. Her poem was about how much she had in common with this prisoner. His poem was the same.
It’s humbling and emotionally and spiritually overpowering to me that human beings can dig through the shit and find common meaning. A twentieth century political philsopher said that we bear our citizenship as a burden in actualizing our humanity. At least one Alabama reservist has made it through the shit to make a human contact with an “enemy.”
So my questions for Senator McCain are asked with heartfelt, genuine human interest, not for any “gotcha” attempt or to make a political point. Senator, don’t you feel a connection to this prisoner? Can’t you understand his anger and bewilderment? Do you feel as badly as I do that we both must bear this systematic mistreatment of our fellow human beings, ostensibly done in our names, as a condition of actualizing our own humanity? How can you not speak out against this?
