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      robert shetterly

      Whistleblower Daniel Hale

      On the Sentencing--and Courage--of Daniel Hale

      The U.S. government's intense determination to prosecute Daniel Hale is precisely because his principled moral courage asks the profound questions its leaders and defenders do not want asked.

      Robert Shetterly
      Jul 15, 2021

      My next portrait for the Americans Who Tell the Truth project will be Daniel Hale, the former Air Force analyst and drone whistleblower who released classified documents showing that nearly 90% of the casualties of U.S. drone assassination missions are civilians--children, women, workers, farmers, and other people who show up as shadows on drone pilot computer screens and are subsequently rendered permanent shadows. Hale will be sentenced on July 27 in Alexandria, Virginia for the crime of truth telling. In all likelihood he will receive 10 years in prison--surely sufficient time to reflect on the error of his ways, which is, primarily, having an overactive conscience, believing that killing innocent civilians, no matter what the national security excuse, is murder.

      Daniel Hale, who is now 33 years old, the same age, interestingly enough, as a well known religious figure was when he was crucified for defying the state, joins a special club of courageous whistleblowers--including Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Daniel Ellsberg--all of whom naively believed the notion that the government of a democratic society derives its just power from the consent of the governed, and that for the people to grant that consent, they need to know what is being done in their name, and with their money. By keeping secret the most important issues of life and death, such a government teaches how it derives unjust power.

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      Opinion
      White Men in Suits, Original Sin, and  Rumplestiltskin

      White Men in Suits, Original Sin, and Rumplestiltskin

      As a kid growing up in Ohio in the 1950s and '60's I was taught to admire and respect--frankly, be intimidated by--white men in suits. They were the priests of the High Holy Church of How the World Works, constantly chanting the liturgy of economic expansion, war, consumption, entitlement, white supremacy, American superiority, extraction of profit from nature.

      Robert Shetterly
      Jul 05, 2020

      As a kid growing up in Ohio in the 1950s and '60's I was taught to admire and respect--frankly, be intimidated by--white men in suits. They were the priests of the High Holy Church of How the World Works, constantly chanting the liturgy of economic expansion, war, consumption, entitlement, white supremacy, American superiority, extraction of profit from nature. This teaching wasn't direct, as in, See that man in the charcoal gray Brooks Brothers suit with the red and blue striped tie -- listen to, obey him! But everywhere I looked voices of authority and power emanated from these white men in suits. Kids assumed they were our wise elders, our role models. Some were politicians, some teachers, some generals, some TV broadcasters, businessmen and bankers.

      The suits weren't pretending. They believed their authority was authentic. They believed in the sanctity of their superior whiteness. They believed America was both good and great and white--it seemed the melting pot's most important ingredient was bleach. They believed capitalism was the only right and righteous economic system. They believed they embodied the pinnacle of the great chain of being. They believed nature's bounty was endless and endlessly forgiving. They believed God was rewarding them for their beliefs. They still saluted the flag of Manifest Destiny. They believed the US was right to dominate the people and resources of other countries; imperialism rhymed with duty rhymed with White Man's Burden rhymed with profit. They observed men of their tribe in all the positions of power, and they knew the tribe's costume (the expensive suit) advertised and accentuated their authority. Initiation into this tribe was the fitting of the first suit on the teenage (white male) acolyte. Often the men in suits were corrupt and yet they went on believing anyway; such is the nature of smug entitlement. Corruptness was at one end of the necessity scale. The exception proved the rule.

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      Opinion
      The Alchemy of Turning Protest to Affirmation

      The Alchemy of Turning Protest to Affirmation

      In order for this country and people in this country to perform reprehensible acts, it has to deny its own professed values and laws while pretending to uphold them. Coming to grips with this is not easy, but it must be done.

      Robert Shetterly
      Jun 17, 2020

      When I try to describe how it feels to be alienated--from a country, a group, a partner, an idea, the past, a culture, an identity--lots of emotions surface. Alienation generates anger and sorrow, confusion and loneliness. Yearning and weariness. Despair. Often that which one feels alienated from and the feelings generated are multiple. If my experience and beliefs estrange me from the unrealized values of my country, I feel alienated from the abstract notion of the country, its facade, its citizens, friends who disagree with me, and from the self who felt morally grounded being identified with those values. Each estrangement, like a planet, accumulates a cluster of painful emotions in orbit around it.

      What surprises me is how long alienation may persist without resolution. Two people may remain in a marriage for decades while both are alienated from the love, respect, and companionship which brought them together. Or, far more dramatically, think of the many generations of indigenous people and people of color who persist in the United States in spite of brutal personal and systemic racism, genocide. It's one thing to be loyal to a country which seems to support you, far different to be loyal to one that is actively hostile to you, generation after generation, callously exploiting and diminishing, making you the target of white supremacy.

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