Archive for April, 2009

I’m suspending my blog to go back to Washington and focus on the economic crisis…

Just kidding! On the verge of graduating, and it would appear that my course load is going to require my full attention.

Back in another 2 weeks.

“Last week, they released these memos outlining torture techniques. That was clearly a political decision and ignored the advice of their Director of National Intelligence and their CIA director,”

While trying to make a political point, House Minority leader John Boehner dropped the “t word”. When called out on it, a spokesman responded.

“It is clear from the context that Boehner was simply using liberals’ verbiage to describe these interrogation techniques. The United States does not torture.”

Jamal Simmons has a piece on Politico on an important historic figure who preceded Dr. King, Philip Randolph.

“Certainly, there is not one individual or singular action that led to Obama’s election. Instead, it was the cumulative effect of generations of Americans, black and white, to erase the barriers to the American dream for every citizen. We rightly recognize Martin Luther King Jr. and his contemporaries for the work they did in the 1950s and 60s, but we should not let the light from those stars blind us to the contributions of those like A. Philip Randolph who came before them.”

I agree with his analysis. We often refer to history in rather sweeping brush strokes and as a result glaze over the important contributions that helped pave the way for the often mentioned iconic and transformative moments. Another often overlooked development in the history of the Civil Rights movement is the evolution of nonviolent dissent. Yes, Dr. King was certainly the most vocal and consistent individual who advocated for nonviolent civil disobedience, but the first protests were staged as early as 1940 by the organization CORE (Congress on Racial Equality).

This in no way makes his actions less pertinent, they just put them into context. We would be wise to see social justice as something that is continually evolving while remembering that sometimes the effects of our actions won’t be evident for decades, centuries even, as evidenced by this piece. This is especially true now, as we seek to rectify another grievance; the lack of marriage equality. We can no longer stand for laws that perpetuate the myth that some are less equal than others. Our history shows us that this simple truth isn’t always immediately realized but it also gives us reason to hope, moments of justice that justify resolve in the face of adversity.

Given my workload for the next three weeks, I’m going to abstain from offering any commentary on the discourse surrounding torture. I don’t have time to follow the debate in its entirety and this issue is too important to be discussed in broad strokes or generalities. I will keep linking out to articles though.
In the meantime, Andrew Sullivan has been doing a brilliant job covering the back and forth.