Saving the Men at Tamms: Tamms Year Ten

Tamms Year Ten, an organization working to stop the "shock treatment" and torture of prisoners by the Illinois Department of Corrections has finally got a bill passed to improve the living conditions of Tamms Supermax Penitentiary Prisoners. The incredible work of this coalition of families, artists, educators, and now even some politicians has the potential to change the lives of the men in Tamms from utter degradation and humiliation towards dignity and possibility. According to the Tamms Year Ten website, the issue became popular at the legislature not because of major media but because of grassroots activism, people calling their representatives, attending hearings, and countless other individual acts. The inspirational actions of Tamms Year Ten demonstrates that people can make an impact. The Illinois Department of Corrections is gearing up to fight the people's efforts. Supporting Tamms Year Ten and Bill HB 6651 will go a long ways to ensuring that the men of Tamms no longer face state torture.

Our Vile Government

This New York Times article reveals that the FBI is complaining about harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA and the U.S. Military. According to the article:

One bureau memorandum spoke of “torture techniques” used by military interrogators. Agents described seeing things like inmates handcuffed in a fetal position for up to 24 hours, left to defecate on themselves, intimidated by dogs, made to wear women’s underwear and subjected to strobe lights and extreme heat and cold.

Clearly, the people in charge of our government act without regard for human dignity. Do they fail to recall that what goes around comes around? Bad behavior, unethical disregard for others, these never lead to just outcomes. Our government must stop engaging in grotesquely unethical behavior and must pay for its crimes through retribution to those it has harmed. Rather than soldiers, those in leadership should be held accountable for mass murder, torture, and crimes against humanity-in short, they should be condemned as war criminals and face the highest penalties of international court.

Beyond Waterboarding

As the Congress wets its pants over Michael Mukasey's ambivalence regarding Waterboarding and torture, I wonder if they are as critical of bombs, bullets, colonialism, and physical assault against Iraqis? I wonder if they think about the sanctions against Iraq, imposed by Clinton's Presidency, that literally starved the Iraqi People killing over 1 million? Do they condemn military maneuvers that attack water treatment plants and destroy the possibility of clean water for Iraqis? Do they consider it torture to dam and horde water to quench the thirst of Americans at the expense of Mexicans, Navajo communities, and others forced to die of thirst? Do they continue to back NAFTA and other free trade policies that have deregulated environmental protection laws and compromised the quality of water in the global South?

If the Democrats want to condemn torture, which of course they should, perhaps they would be well advised to condemn murder, ecological destruction and genocide as well.