uh, about Guantanamo...

(see previous post)

Well, maybe one more 'political'-type post, before I return to my recent topics of slavery and/or Thomas Jefferson...I see now how this can become addictive...
John McCain was the first guest on Fox News Sunday w/Chris Wallace, a favorite political forum talk show of mine. (Chris Wallace is great, he doesn't let his guest evade a question. His dogged pursuit of an answer, when necessary, without offending the person trying to sidestep an issue, really impresses me.) (btw, that is not John McCain in the picture w/Mr. Wallace.) Anyway, about the Senator ...

I personally felt so encouraged, so confirmed even, to see the Senator sitting there with Chris. He seemed relaxed but clear on what he had to say. Not pushy, but a bit more definite-sounding than during the campaign, I thought. He was introduced as the man to whom President Obama would be turning for advice, as he tackles a main issue of new ways to handle our war on terrorism.

The closing of Guantanamo was addressed right off the bat. Senator McCain's perspective has helped mine. Because Guantanamo Bay prison has become a symbol, in the worst sense, for America, resurrecting images of Abu Ghraib, McCain was in favor of the order to begin closing it down. This I understand. His objections to the decision included the timing of the announcement, or perhaps I should say, in the order of necessary events, it should've taken place further down the line. First it needs to be decided where then shall the prisoners be housed? What about future detainees yet to be apprehended? What if we catch bin Laden? Where will he be held? McCain feels that these other issues should've taken priority, both on the President's schedule and when announced.

It was also mentioned that a previously-released prisoner has since either returned to, or joined al Qaeda as one of their leaders. (I didn't catch the name, but a photo was shown.) This is not good.

Finally, concerning the torture question...while watching Meet the Press, I heard it mentioned that a sort of 'back-door' clause had left a loophole for a re-introduction of more hard line questioning of terrorism suspects, if it was deemed advisable. (I had read about this, but had also read that such clause should not be looked at as a 'loophole' - except, that, as I see it, it IS a loophole.) The phrase: "enhanced interrogation techniques". One of the panel participants (again, didn't catch the name, sorry) informed us that lawyers call this 'purposeful ambiguity'. Meaning, the door to torture is not really closed.

To which I say, "Rock on!!" for 'purposeful ambiguity'...

Guantanamo

My mushy, emotional Obama moment is over.

This is definitely not a political discussion-type blog, and it won't be often that I post my opinion on current events, but today I am. I don't have a mind for political/government etc. debate, I go on my instinct. I can't prove a point in this arena, I don't know enough. I get headaches trying to read and learn all the necessary facts. But I've been reading & getting headaches for the past two days, trying to understand, to comprehend the bigger picture behind President Obama's signing of the order to close the Guantanamo prison within a year.

This detention center houses some major terror suspects, specifically five of whom are believed to have been involved in the planning of 9/11. The order includes shutting down secret CIA prisons, world-wide, where we held suspected terrorists. And it looks like what I call 'soft-on-torture' legislation is being officially adopted. Extremely soft.

For two or three days before the Inauguration, I was getting this sense of dread, this sick feeling that, once sworn in, we would begin to see a different Obama than the charismatic guy who campaigned. My fear specifically was...well, something just like this.

I really need to take time to read the Constitution through, because I don't know how, or if, the Bush administration may have violated it, broken the law. But, you know, though it may be proven that such was the case, my position is, whatever it takes to prevent another 9/11...

On this Inaugural eve, as I watch news broadcasts showing the excitement mounting in Washington, D.C., as American citizens from all over arrive to be a part of history, I am overwhelmed with grateful, grateful tears. I am overwhelmed because, of all the places in the entire world that I could have been born, God placed me here. He placed me in America.

How could I have been so honored, so favored? Why? I think at this moment I feel a little bit like King David must have, when he penned these words in Psalm 8: "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?" I am so favored, to be alive and a part of this magnificent moment in time.

Though my heart and my support were absolutely with our departing President, I did not feel the sense of active engagement with President Bush as I now find myself feeling with our incoming President. This seems to have developed rather suddenly. It is here. The charisma of which I was wary has now, apparently, enveloped me, too. I, and America, are behind Barack Obama, and so should we be. We all need one another.

We need God's help, we need hope and faith, and we need one another.

...before We Get There...

While officially embarking on my quest to document some of Thomas Jefferson's renowned complexities of character, belief and/or behavior, I got side-tracked. Chances are good that we're heading back to George Washington Avenue for a brief stay. Hope nobody minds...but before we get there...


Jefferson sought to combine the philosophy of politics with the actual practice of it, becoming the thinker who leads, the 'philosopher-king', a concept introduced by Plato in his dialogue Republic, (which, btw, means 'political system'). Herein appears a first Jeffersonian contradiction for, though absorbing these teachings while learning philosophy in college, he himself wanted no part of any kind of monarchical government. Not then. Not ever. His abhorrence to such a system was expressed adamantly in a letter written by Jefferson in 1817, where he vowed, "I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man." (While 'tyranny over the mind' may not necessarily exist in a king-ruling-over-his subjects society, in every member of that society, still...I'm zeroing in on Jefferson's passion for freedom in its entirety.)

This absolute refuting of power of one individual over another leads us, of course, to the most glaring of all contradictions, not only of Thomas Jefferson but of many of our founding fathers. How could it be that the man who penned those immortal words declaring all men equal, with the right to liberty, owned and continued to own slaves? How could that be? If all men were created equal, why is it that some were declared to be 'property'? Where was the equality in that?

For some reason, in the struggle to grow up and live my own life, this gargantuan ethical paradox never quite impacted me. I should have been sledge-hammered in the face by it! But somehow, though I always knew about Abraham Lincoln's emancipation of our slaves, and though I always knew repugnance that such a condition even existed in our country, I somehow never connected the dots. In my convoluted thinking, (which I attribute to, perhaps, puberty, the opposite sex, peer pressure, etc., which just plain disorients a young person!) slaves were somehow already here, they came with the territory, and no Americans were at fault. (Back in the day, I don't recall the educational system alluding in any way to American responsibility in perpetuating the practice of keeping slaves). Talk about illusion....

I don't remember when, or why, I had my rude awakening. The specific moment is lost in the fog of time, but I suspect it occurred within the last decade, believe it or not. Yes, that recent. And I suspect 9/11 had everything to do with it. Be this as it may, one day, somehow the picture came into focus for me. Not sharp focus, but focus nonetheless...

ooo

Between the years of 1600 and 1860, approximately half a million African slaves were forcibly brought to [what ultimately became] our shores by European traders. (Note: The overall number of enslaved Africans to be imported to the Americas was in the area of 15 million, with the majority being delivered to South and Central America, and the West Indies.) By the start of the Civil War, that half-million count had burgeoned into four million, the bulk of whom lived and worked in the South. And thousands of these were brought into our country illegally. Slave importation was banned in 1808, but for some fifty years, smuggling continued, and it is estimated that some 200,000 Africans were yet delivered to America's shores.

Though the lands to become the United States of America saw the arrival of her first slaves in 1619, this cultural abomination had been in existence since ancient times. Everything has its roots. For the purposes of this series of articles, however, we'll begin in the 1500's, when Portugal and Spain first brought enslaved Africans to the New World,to replace Native Americans in the gold mines of Central America. From there the phenomenon spread.

ooo

Though barely touching the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of this mammoth topic, already I have alternately been in tears, nausea, and near shock. This is too huge. Slavery is part of our history. Not only the blood of Revolutionary patriots but the suffering of, the injustice done to multitudes of African slaves brought us to where we are today.

Invisible Things being Seen

"...we wrestle...against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6: 12)

"...the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ...should shine unto them." (2 Corinthians 4:4)


According to these two New Testament verses, there exist in our world unseen forces that employ darkness to achieve their purposes. Those purposes are neither benign, nor benevolent. Though a person may have been held captive by the power of darkness at one time, there is deliverance in Jesus Christ from this very power. So we are told in the first chapter of the book of Colossians, in verse thirteen.

I tell you this to illustrate a condition of captivity versus a condition of liberty. I tell you this to illustrate what I believe is the very root of slavery. And as the Scriptures tell us that the 'invisible things' of Him can be seen and understood by 'things that are made' (Romans 1: 20 ), so I also believe that His triumph in Christ over humanity's enslavement to death, in all its forms, has been and is being evidenced by events that have transpired throughout the history of the United States of America. From our bloody beginnings, throughout continued wrestlings against tyranny in and outside of our own governing bodies, and especially against the lurid horror of actual human enslavement, American stands as a living epistle, showing forth the will of the Father in the Son, making men free indeed.

Please join me as, going forward, I soberly explore the issue of slavery as it related to our Founding Fathers, our fledgling nation and our first national documents.

As always, thank you for stopping by.....Christina