Evil

OK, the General tried to address this, but he can't. Everything he wrote seemed too trite. Some things are just too horrific to approach from the General's perspective.

At this moment, Congress is working to institutionalize evil, and that, without a doubt, is what torture and indiscriminate imprisonment is. It's evil no matter how patriotically it's packaged. And as the Rude Pundit notes, we are just as guilty of committing this evil as our leaders if we do nothing to stop it:

Last night, on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann was right: we are led by moral cowards. But, to take it further, more evil has been committed by fearful people than by brave ones. Ask the Bosnians.

We have to accept that, whatever their intentions, whatever reasons they might have had for their actions, the ones that they give mighty speeches about before handpicked crowds and the ones that they only whisper in private to their reflections in the mirror, we are now being led by people who are doing evil. This doesn't mean that others around the world are not doing evil. Just because al-Qaeda members commit evil deeds doesn't mean that Donald Rumsfeld does not. A man who murdered someone in a drive-by shooting is not excused because he is put into a jail cell next to a serial killer.

If we dare accept to our horror and infinite shame that we have allowed ourselves to be represented by people who do evil, even in the name of good, then we can either be complicit - we can go about our daily lives while the stench of the concentration camp pollutes the air of the town - or we can reject evil.

Pastordan chimes in as well:

What is happening on Capitol Hill today is plainly evil.

[...]

The new interrogation policy, if ratified, will cause harm. Obviously, it will harm prisoners lost in some black hole in the second or third world, subject to tactics that haven't quite been made public for what should again be obvious reasons. It will deprive them of goods which are proper to them, namely liberty, dignity, due process, and the fundamental right not to have to have the shit kicked out of them on the authority of an unaccountable regime.

Less obviously, this policy harms us all. Aside from the damage it does to US moral authority abroad, and the danger to which it exposes captured American troops, it degrades our shared humanity. I am less of a person because of this shocking and disgraceful policy, and so are you.

What our elected officials intend to carry out is, in a word, evil. It is time for our leaders to say so.

They won't, of course, unless one of them has a sudden attack of conscience.

More likely, they will have to be dragged into finding their consciences, kicking and screaming. It is our responsibility to do the dragging. If necessary, we will need to raise the stakes to such a point that they cannot resist the pressure. Anyone - anyone - who accomodates torture takes part in evil. That might not make us all equally responsible, but it does make us all guilty. May God have mercy on me for what is being done in my name. I do not want to be safe at that price.

You need to contact your senators and congresspeople today. Original letters, faxes, and phone calls work best, but if you can't afford a stamp or long distance charges send them an email. If you can't write something yourself, send this postcard, but do so knowing that it won't be nearly as effective as a letter or a phone call.

Tell your senators and congressman, both Republican and Democratic, that this legislation is evil and goes against every value Americans have held since the birth of this nation. Tell them that it is time for them to show leadership by confronting those who promote this evil. Speak and write with the passion of our those who founded this great nation on the values Bush, McCain and the rest seek to destroy. Speak to them as Jefferson and Paine would have addressed them. America's soul is at stake.

And after you've contacted them, call the Obamas, the Clintons, and the others who've decried Democrats for not embracing the Christian left. Tell them that now is the time for them to stand up for people on the Christian left like pastordan and lead the fight to stop this evil. It might not hurt to send Amy Sullivan a note too. This is her opportunity to actually do something other than bitch about secular Democrats.

And please consider sending a few bucks to promising challengers like Peter and Darcy. We won't have to worry about this kind of crap if we take Bush's rubber stamp away from Congress.

Elsewhere: Another kind of evil.