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Truth and Healing
Can we find ideas - political ideas - big enough to be worthy of this moment?
You know, before the cynicism and the disappointment and the recession and the dumbed-down media and, oh yeah, the regrouping Republicans, conspire to dull Barack Obama's election into the bitter memory of hope and harass his presidency into something that resembles Clintonism and business slightly to the left of usual (if that).
Right now and perhaps for the fabled "first hundred days," the sense of possibility is as palpable as it is vague. There's a yearning in the air, but for what? When I was at the post office the other day, the clerk could scarcely contain her enthusiasm for the Lincoln stamps she was showing me - four views of Honest Abe, see. Here he is as a young man; now he's practicing law; now he's in Congress; and, finally, here's the 16th president, the Great Emancipator, deep and wise, the Lincoln we remember, in the embrace of history and myth.
And we both knew, in some unstated way, that she was really showing me Obama stamps. This is what our expectations are, and they're impossible. Yes, of course.
This yearning is probably too diffuse to leverage into political change. It will certainly drain off, be reabsorbed by the distractions of American life, unless we figure out how to act on it, aim it at the politicians we elected, demand that they represent us and begin shaping "hope" into collective action. The yearning, I am certain, is for spiritual breakthrough and deep national conversation about what just happened - the Bush era - and what we do next.
All of which is a way to say, call Sen. Patrick Leahy. Doing so may be as good a place as any to start. This past Monday, the Vermont Democrat, in a speech at Georgetown University in which he decried the "dark days" that are just ending - of torture and pre-emptive war, domestic spying, a hyper-politicized Justice Department, a screaming Constitution - presented an idea that may be big enough to capture the spirit of the moment:
"We need," said Leahy, chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee, "to get to the bottom of what happened - and why - so we make sure it never happens again.
"One path to that goal would be a reconciliation process and truth commission. . . . not for purposes of constructing criminal indictments, but to assemble the facts. If needed, such a process could involve subpoena powers, and even the authority to obtain immunity from prosecutions in order to get to the whole truth. Congress has already granted immunity, over my objection, to those who facilitated warrantless wiretaps and those who conducted cruel interrogations. It would be far better to use that authority to learn the truth."
Anger pauses. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Something profound struggles to be born. Truth is a public commodity without which no society is free - and how long has it been since we have been free? The secrets have been piling up for decades . . . for the entirety of my lifetime. George Bush simply accelerated the process.
Leahy, by using the term "Truth Commission," has defined the seriousness of the crimes committed over the past eight years and linked his proposal to an international movement to examine out-of-control governmental power: to drag this behavior out of the shadows, to see it in full detail, not for the sake of punishing the perps, which, if that is the end, sets powerful counterforces into motion, but simply because change - a moral upgrade of humanity - is possible only if we know the truth.
In his Georgetown speech, Leahy referred to two past truth commissions as models: South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the little known Truth Commission convened in Greensboro, N.C., in 2005, 16 years after Klansmen and neo-Nazis killed five people at an anti-Klan rally in that city (and all-white juries acquitted the six people arrested).
Many other such commissions, on scales both large and small, have been convened over the years. Amnesty International makes note of 32 of them, in 28 countries - including El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, Uganda and East Timor - between 1974 and 2007. Amnesty is also one of a number of groups that have called, since Obama's election, for the establishment of a Truth Commission in the United States. Veterans for Peace is another; it passed such a resolution at its 2008 national convention. And Leahy's House counterpart, John Conyers, has introduced legislation to establish a panel to probe the same dark terrain of Bush administration "unreviewable war powers."
Will the public support a Truth Commission - not a whitewash panel but a commission with teeth, including the power to issue subpoenas and grant immunity in exchange for full, honest testimony? Before Leahy can push on it, he needs to know where we stand. Please tell him. Call his office at (202) 224-4242 (or e-mail: senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov). Hope will die unless we set it in motion.
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27 Comments so far
Show AllThis is a very interesting and timely article. This question that surely must grip a majority of caring Americans is probably exactly how it all went so terribly wrong?
But I wonder if many caring Americans ask if something went wrong, I don't think so.
It is not a question of if, it is a question of what. Robert Koehler insists that for hope to survive we don't need to know if, we need to know how.
Is this truly a question that we need a truth and reconciliation commission to answer for us in a way that is beyond what we ourselves can establish?
What happened because of the recent actions of the Bush administration? Can we truly not look around and find enough evidence for ourselves to present that evidence to our government?
I think we can and if they want to then prove a different story to us as to the what, and even further the why to regain our trust, then let them be the deciders.
If we want a truth and reconciliation process we do not need to wait on congress to create it for the people. That constitutional right is a right that we have and rarely use and perhaps are blind to.
Generally it is called "redress of grievance". But in this case we can call it a truth and reconciliation act to redress grievance.
What happens when snowflakes stick together?...............friends come together and have snow ball fights. :)
Leea
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. ....Thomas Jefferson
Ask Shultz how far (and believe me, he tried every approach all the way to Scotus and was shot down constantly) he and Restore the Republic got with that "redress of grievance" right. Good luck...maybe you have a better method.
IMHO, you cannot fight the system with their own tools. It's been set up for us to fail.As you said, they are the deciders.
O february I disagree with this kind of thinking; (the tools of freedom and liberty are "their tools") but thanks for the good luck, I'll take it.
Summum bonum!
Jeevee
Leea, will you please stop using that broken record sentence about snowflakes? It lowers your reputation and wastes our time & approval of your comments. We feel that you can do better than this!
Though I'm not sure why that little line caused so much consternation, I will not deny it has had a few people who come here literally writhing in some unaccountable emotion of dislike or ___________.
Let it not be me who ignores the little pleas "We"
I hope this makes life better for some.
Summum bonum!
Leea,
I'm gonna miss the snowflakes quote. I actually liked it. Oh well. :(
Well you are welcome to use it with your posts if you'd like. :)
Summum bonum!
No I don't feel like copying it. It just wouldn't be the same if someone else put that quote. Thanks though.
The two most important places to begin such a reconciliation, if it is to happen, are the two first, perhaps most traumatic events of the Bush years: the theft of the 2000 election and the 911 attacks. All the other lies, all the other deaths, all the subsequent twistings and perversions of policy grow out of these two insufficiently investigated events. To know how we got to where we are today, we must leave no stone unturned.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. ....Thomas Jefferson
Have you heard anything about the 911 ballot initiative in NY?
No, could you tell us what that's about?
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. ....Thomas Jefferson
Last I heard, NYC residents had gathered enough names on a referendum to put a question about a re-investigation of 9/11 on the ballot in the mayorial election in February 2009. I actually though someone here might have an update.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. ....Thomas Jefferson
Also...http://www.nyc911initiative.org/contact.htm
"Truth" Commission = whitewash
Arrest, prosecute, convict, execute.
NUREMBERG II 2009
Right now and perhaps for the fabled "first hundred days," the sense of possibility is as palpable as it is vague. There's a yearning in the air, but for what?
It can't be honest government, because if it were, the Repelicans and the Damnocrats would no longer exist as political parties but merely examples in civics textbooks of what used to constitute thoroughly corrupt, incompetent government.
I didn't elect the idiots. Over the years I have been occasionally spied upon in violation of United States laws and in violation of the Constitution. I'd like the truth to be told. I'd like various people paid a salary to be engaged in the spying to come clean, that they may live an honest rest of their lives. They have morals too, like me, and it hurts them to have somewhat betrayed their own real dreams of one democratic nation under God, just because they feel they have to feed their own families.
"not for the sake of punishing the perps, which, if that is the end, sets powerful counterforces into motion,"
This line pretty much sums it up. America (but mostly the world) was raped by these powerful counterforces and is quite aware of what they can do if pressed. Remember the redneck, unspoken pick-up truck enforcement of silence during the first stages of bush war ii? Who wants to be the scorned object of Cheney's filthy, murderous little mind? If he looks at you wrong you can be dead very easily. Still, I think. Just because we are the citizenry doesn't mean that these "counter-forces" couldn't go to war with us. Why else wouldn't we want to punish the perps unless we were afraid of retribution by the perps? Bush threw a fear into Americans unlike any I've ever known. It is still with us. Americans are afraid of testing these counterforces. The monster is still out there and watching. We've only chased it into a cave.
You're right billiam1..I agree with you.
There are so many layers to this "Truth" however, that we will never find all of it. But that's ok. We still need to address what has/is happening in our government and beyond. The monster is not even in a cave but dispersed back into all the niches it came from...but multipled like hyper-breeding roaches.
Roaches need food. Don't feed the roaches! "No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from".....per Jewel.
You can tell the truth but unless it can be rendered acceptable, people just won't believe it. I hate to say this but the Age of Enlightenment is long over. It's like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
armybrat 2;43 pm:
About two weeks ago,from my dotage,I took a shot at Leaa that I thought was funny.Over about 4 days,guilt was growing within me and I apologized to her.She gracefully accepted.Methinks she has some simpatico with the complex ways that the Internet operates.With the handle "armybrat" you're probably more stoic than me,but you have my cautionary tale,don't hold onto the pain too long!
Hi Leaa,did this evoke a guffaw,I hope?
Hey klever.
It evoked a smile thanks.
I've removed my old signature line for now, I still cannot grasp exactly why it was so frightening to some here, but it is. I heard a lot about rocks in snowballs and so I guess it was sorta drawing up really bad memories.
One just never knows.
Ah life, onward.
Summum bonum!
Truth:
Council on Foreign Relations.
"We shall have world government whether or not you like it; by conquest or consent." - James Warburg, CFR, February 1950
Barack and Michelle Obama - CFR
Joseph Biden - CFR
George W. and George H. W. Bush - CFR
Dick Cheney - CFR
Bill and Hillary Clinton - CFR
David Rockefeller - CFR
The king is dead, long live the king. There is no two party system in the US.
Keep electing CFR sockpuppets, and you keep getting the same (lack of) leadership, and a growing corporate/foreign bank oligarchy running our nation.
There were many of us who saw through the Obama mania to who his financers are, who owns him, and we knew there would be no promised change. You had hope, now it's gone.
Expect a lot of hemming and hawing as Obama keeps all of Bush's assaults on our rights, liberties, and privacy.
Aloha, salud, lechiem,
- Tobias
http://www.youtube.com/user/tobiasaurusrex
Your point is excellent Tobias.
The time is upon us to realize that no one in the old system can save us. Our salvation lies outside, in the refreshing empty space where we construct an entirely new system.
Summum bonum!
You know, this article has me thinking, what would Lincoln do? WWLD? It's funny or not so funny that for the past few weeks I keep finding pennies on the ground.
Lincoln, perhaps our best president ever, discarded subconsciously. When I was a little girl and I found Lincoln on the ground I would snatch that penny up as if I had just won a million dollars in the lottery.
Now I fearfully stare at that symbol, and am hesitant to seem that desperate. What is wrong with me?
Lately the pennies that I am finding are beat up, as if run over countless times by shopping carts and cars and feet. Considering the times and President Obama's affiliation with Lincoln, his adopted favorite father, you would think pennies on the ground would be hard to come by.
But alas I am finding more, where are they coming from? What is the message if there is one? I'll let Lincoln speak here for me from the hollowed ground where he lay.
"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. "
Have we forgotten what they did there in that struggle? Is that what those beaten up pennies are trying to say? Consider the battle that waged on after that ground was hallowed with the blood of humans made saints, the battle did not end and the slow bleeding in the partisan battle will not let us forget the old wounds, nor heal them. Were those words that Lincoln uttered so long ago a blessing or a curse? Can we never forget and just move on?
Summum bonum!
Nanoo
What's with all this Lincoln worship? Granted when I was a much younger and igornant person, I thought pretty highly of him. Now I think Lincoln was for empire and that was the main reason why he would not let the south go. Slavery was on it's way out at that time throughout the more developed lands. He also is responsible for continuing this Manifest Destiny concept without regard to the Native populations and Mexicans.
I think this line of thinking has merit. Thus my question, did Lincoln curse us or bless us with his actions, or both? I just saw a television show on PBS about the "Lincoln Myth" about this gentleman's worship of him and his journey to find out the truth. Lincoln was in no way a saint as we might imagine but more of a human like you or me caught in his time.
Summum bonum!