We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Guantánamo Prisoner's Memoirs Offer Rare First-Person Account of Torture

Click here to access the introduction by Noa Yachot from American Civil Liberties Union regarding the memoirs of a Guantánamo prisoner published in a series on Slate.

This piece provides a very good background on the prisoner who wrote the memoir and other information about the series. At the time of this writing, I have only read some of it and I find it tough reading. However, it is a necessary read for all Americans to see what the enforcers employed by the One Percent are doing to other human beings in our name and paid for by our tax dollars.
I really must have acted like a child all day long before the guards pried me from the population block later that day. You don’t know how terrorizing it is for a human being to be threatened with torture. One becomes literally a child. An Arabic proverb says, “Waiting on torture is worse than torture itself.” I can only confirm this proverb.
The escort team showed up at my cell: “You got to move.”