Commentary by Black Kos Editor Deoliver47
Happy Birthday Sister Angela
Tomorrow is the birthday of Angela Davis, born in Birmingham, AL, on January 26 in 1944.
It would take several diaries to cover her childhood, her work, her activism, and her spirit.
What I would like to cover briefly here today is her work, and her thoughts around prison abolition. An issue that has some supporters, but has more folks who raise questions about the viability of such a premise, or even the the necessity of examining our prison-industrial complex, and related concerns about the death penalty.
May I suggest today, if you do not have a bookshelf full of Dr. Davis' work, that you place on your "must read" list her book:
Are Prisons Obsolete?
Amid rising public concern about the proliferation and privitization of prisons, and their promise of enormous profits, world-renowned author and activist Angela Y. Davis argues for the abolition of the prison system as the dominant way of responding to America’s social ills.
"In thinking about the possible obsolescence of the prison," Davis writes, "we should ask how it is that so many people could end up in prison without major debates regarding the efficacy of incarceration."
Whereas Reagan-era politicians with "tough on crime" stances argued that imprisonment and longer sentences would keep communities free of crime, history has shown that the practice of mass incarceration during that period has had little or no effect on official crime rates: in fact, larger prison populations led not to safer communities but to even larger prison populations. As we make our way into the twenty-first century—two hundred years after the invention of the penitentiary —the question of prison abolition has acquired an unprecedented urgency.
Backed by growing numbers of prisons and prisoners, Davis analyzes these institutions in the U.S., arguing that the very future of democracy depends on our ability to develop radical theories and practices that make it possible to plan and fight for a world beyond the prison industrial complex.
I realize that many of you may be at work, and not able to listen to video right now. Or perhaps have computers that can't handle them. Please find the time if you can to listen. Transcripts are not available but the ideas that she discusses are outlined in her books and articles.
Angela Davis on Women, Privilege and Prisons Part I
Renowned civil rights and womens rights leader Angela Davis spoke at Ebenezer Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta on March 24, 2009 for the keynote address of Emory Universitys Womens History Month. Daviss long-standing commitment to prisoners rights dates to her involvement in the campaign to free the Soledad Brothers, which led to her own arrest and imprisonment in 1970
Angela Davis on Women, Privilege and Prisons Part II
What I love about these two videos from the church that was the home of Daddy King and MLK Jr. is the very warm welcome she receives, the connection she makes to the congregation and members of the audience, and her responses at the end to questions.
Dr. Angela Davis - Are Prisons Obsolete?
Reelblack checked in with Dr. Angela Davis during her recent stop at Bryn Mawr College. In this short clip she discusses her latest books on Prison Reform. (apologies for the poor audio--please take time to hear this great woman's words)
The Prison: A Sign of Democracy?
UC Santa Cruz professor Angela Davis explores the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. She urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement.
Angela Davis tells her own story in Angela Davis: An Autobiography. It is not a traditional "me" centered autobiography in the sense that she does not disconnect herself from a broader movement in America.
Sister Angela discusses some of the internal contradictions within the prison abolition movement in this interview:
The Challenge of Prison Abolition: A ConversationA conversation between Angela Y. Davis and Dylan Rodriguez
Dylan: Was there anything about ICOPA (the International Conference on Penal Abolition) that particularly impressed you?
Angela: The ICOPA conference in Toronto revealed some of the major strengths and weaknesses of the abolitionist movement. First of all, despite the rather homogenous character of their circle, they have managed to keep the notion of abolitionism alive precisely at a time when developing radical alternatives to the prison-industrial complex is becoming a necessity. That is to say, abolitionism should not now be considered an unrealizable utopian dream, but rather the only possible way to halt the further transnational development of prison industries. That ICOPA claims supporters in Europe and Latin America is an indication of what is possible. However, the racial homogeneity of ICOPA, and the related failure to incorporate an analysis of race into the theoretical framework of their version of abolitionism, is a major weakness. The conference demonstrated that while faith-based approaches to the abolition of penal systems can be quite powerful, organizing strategies must go much further. We need to develop and popularize the kinds of analyses that explain why people of color predominate in prison populations throughout the world and how this structural racism is linked to the globalization of capital.
...
Angela: There are multiple histories of prison abolition. The Scandinavian scholar/activist Thomas Mathieson first published his germinal text, The Politics of Abolition, in 1974, when activist movements were calling for the disestablishment of prisons -- in the aftermath of the Attica Rebellion and prison uprisings throughout Europe. He was concerned with transforming prison reform movements into more radical movements to abolish prisons as the major institutions of punishment. There was a pattern of decarceration in the Netherlands until the mid-1980s, which seemed to establish the Dutch system as a model prison system, and the later rise in prison construction and the expansion of the incarcerated population has served to stimulate abolitionist ideas. Criminologist Willem de Haan published a book in 1990 entitled The Politics of Redress: Crime, Punishment, and Penal Abolition. One of the most interesting texts, from the point of view of U.S. activist history is Fay Honey Knopp's volume Instead of Prison: A Handbook for Prison Abolitionists, which was published in 1976, with funding from the American Friends. This handbook points out the contradictory relationship between imprisonment and an "enlightened, free society." Prison abolition, like the abolition of slavery, is a long-range goal and the handbook argues that an abolitionist approach requires an analysis of "crime" that links it with social structures, as opposed to individual pathology, as well as "anticrime" strategies that focus on the provision of social resources. Of course, there are many versions of prison abolitionism -- including those that propose to abolish punishment altogether and replace it with reconciliatory responses to criminal acts. In my opinion, the most powerful relevance of abolitionist theory and practice today resides in the fact that without a radical position vis-a-vis the rapidly expanding prison system, prison architecture, prison surveillance, and prison system corporatization, prison culture, with all its racist and totalitarian implications, will continue not only to claim ever increasing numbers of people of color, but also to shape social relations more generally in our society. Prison needs to be abolished as the dominant mode of addressing social problems that are better solved by other institutions and other means. The call for prison abolition urges us to imagine and strive for a very different social landscape.
The Harvard Gazette covered her lecture at the Kennedy School of government:
Abolish prisons, says Angela Davis:Questions the efficacy, morality of incarcerationBy Beth Potier
What stood out for me in the piece was a question posed to Dr Davis from a black woman in the audience from Roxbury, and her response:
From punitive to restorative justice
Shifting strategies from punitive to restorative justice involves not only changing the way our system addresses crime but also getting at some of the roots of crime. We must work, Davis said, to transform "the social and economic conditions that track so many children from poor communities, especially communities of color, into bad schools that look more like juvenile detention centers than they look like schools."
A woman from Boston's urban Roxbury neighborhood - "I live in the belly of the beast," she said - challenged Davis' vision for prison abolition with respectful curiosity. Young boys sell crack on her street, she said, and she wants them gone. If not to prison, where?
"You can't think myopically," said Davis. "There is no place else [for the boys], so the default solution is prison. Why don't we have other institutions?"
She argued that better schools, recreation centers, and other youth resources - and community activism that matches education activists with prison abolitionists - were some possible solutions for Roxbury and beyond.
"Our most difficult and urgent challenge to date," she said, "is that of creatively exploring new terrains of justice where the prison no longer serves as our major anchor."
You may have similar questions. She has never stated that every single person who is a danger to society (or themselves) should simply "be released" into the general population Let's make that clear. But as prison abolitionists make their case, the majority of people currently incarcerated in our prisons are not violent offenders, and even some of those who are, are neither sociopaths nor psychopaths, but may have committed crimes that were driven by drugs, alcohol, poverty and other issues, better served by treatment than the degrading and soul killing places that make a mockery of the word "rehabilitation".
Let me close with a few quotes from Dr. Davis:
Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo - obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.
Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty.
...the 13th amendment to the constitution of the US which abolished slavery - did not abolish slavery for those convicted of a crime.
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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A very strongly worded editorial what do you guys think? Black Enterprise: There Were Not Enough Blacks at CES & It’s Our Own Fault
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While walking among the 2,700 technology companies and hundreds of thousands of participants at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show two weeks ago, it became evident to me that there were very few African-Americans in the crowd. The majority of blacks I met at the event did not actively work as creative engineers or computer scientists for any of the companies. Most worked as journalists or bloggers reporting on the conference or as marketing and sales professionals; and even in those positions, African Americans were few and far between.
I immediately asked myself, "Who is to blame for this apparent lack of black representation at one of the mainstay conferences meant to inform and prepare the world about the technologies that will shape our future?" Unfortunately, the answer seems obvious. At this point in history, we as a community can blame no one but ourselves. The majority of us have become so enamored with consuming technology that we aren’t making a serious effort to be involved in creating and producing it.
If this phenomenon of black invisibility had taken place 10 or 20 years ago, I would be quick to attribute it to racism. And believe me, I do not underestimate the role that subtle, institutional racism still plays in making African- Americans feel out of place and inferior within the halls of academia, in computer science and engineering, or even perhaps on the HR roles at Google and Facebook.
In my opinion, though, the problem is now more so rooted in our parenting. Black parents are raising a generation of financially and educationally underpowered wimps, who’ve become experts at mastering the inconsequential. That may sound harsh, but look at the facts.
How can it be that African American youth spend 50% more time with entertainment media than whites, but the achievement gap between whites and blacks is almost equal to three grade levels. The majority of black students can’t even get to the upper echelons in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers to prove or disprove that racism exists there because most are struggling to pass algebra, biology, and physics in high school.
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Every once in a while, a unique and wonderful book appears. "Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: African-American gardens rooted in tradition
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Author and photographer Vaughn Sills, 64, takes us on a journey through the South chronicling the most unlikely gardens, all presented in gorgeous black and white. The gardens are improbable because they aren't the perfectly manicured, formal landscapes we're used to seeing in coffee-table books.
She began photographing these Southern gardens in 1987 when she visited one in Athens, Ga., with a friend. "When I first saw this garden, what I felt was something mystical, sort of magical," she said.
Under a portrait of the gardener, Ms. Sills writes: "Light glowed throughout Bea Robinson's garden. It reflected off brown bottles laid in a circle and bathed two sculptures, a vaguely mythological standing figure and a chicken."
At the time it was a personal photography project. She drove through little towns on country roads all through the South, discovering a wide variety of fascinating subjects. Ms. Sills would spend a few hours at each garden with her large-format film camera meeting gardeners. As she collected more and more interesting pictures, she realized it should be a book.
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David Hardy managed to prove a major newspaper guilty of racism. It was typical of this bigger-than-life warrior for equal justice. The Root: Remembering a Courageous Journalist
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David W. Hardy, one of four plaintiffs in a groundbreaking and successful racial-discrimination suit filed in the 1980s against the New York Daily News, was buried Thursday. He died on Jan. 14 of a heart attack at age 68. After a grueling trial that was closely watched by both black journalists and white news organizations, the 1987 jury verdict ordered the newspaper to hire and promote black reporters and editors. The verdict affected media outlets across the country. (After the jury verdict, the plaintiffs also negotiated a payment of $3.1 million in damages from the newspaper.)
At 6 feet 4, Hardy was enormous in both physical stature and in his relentless commitment to the fight against racism and injustice in journalism. He refused to settle quietly or to be intimidated during the years the suit dragged on. Other plaintiffs were copy editor Causewell Vaughan; Steven W. Duncan, an assistant news editor; and Joan Shepard, Manhattan cultural-affairs editor.
When the suit was filed, there were few black reporters or editors at the Daily News, black reporters were given the worst assignments and no black employee had ever been promoted to a management position on the newspaper's editorial side. Les Payne -- a friend of Hardy's, a co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, a former columnist and editor at Newsday, and an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the trial -- has characterized the Daily News as "the only major American newspaper convicted of racism in a court of law."
In 1993 Hardy lost his job when Mortimer B. Zuckerman, owner of U.S. News & World Report, bought the Daily News and eliminated 34 percent of the jobs covered by the Newspaper Guild. The three other plaintiffs had previously left the newspaper.
Those who knew and worked with Hardy remember him as a fearless fighter, a gentle soul and a great raconteur. Susan S. Singer was a young lawyer working in the office of famed attorney Ray Brown, the original attorney on the case, when she met Hardy. His experience as a reporter and in covering courts made him invaluable to the plaintiffs.
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Still dreaming of a peacefully resolution to this. New York Times: Cut Off, Ivory Coast Chief Is Pressing for Cash
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The global squeeze on the finances of Laurent Gbagbo, the strongman who refuses to cede power after losing a presidential election here, has included sanctions, asset freezes and financial interdictions, all in the hope of dislodging him without military force.
Ivory Coast’s security forces are one of the constituencies that Mr. Gbagbo must continue paying in order to stay in power. More Photos »
But Mr. Gbagbo, a political survivor accustomed to staying in office well beyond his legal term, has a financial plan of his own: pushing the banks and companies around him to continue supplying him with cash, diplomats and local businessmen say.
Mr. Gbagbo increasingly appears to be on the lookout for money to pay two constituencies — the military and civil servants — vital to his hold on power.
So last week, his officials met representatives from the country’s cocoa industry to press them to pay advances on export taxes, according to a cocoa businessman here. Ivory Coast is the world’s leading producer, and the crop is worth about $1.6 billion to the government.
"He’s looking for $90 million, from here to the end of the month," the cocoa businessman said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because more than 200 people had been killed since the election and attacks on civilians are frequent.
Diplomats and businessmen here say Mr. Gbagbo’s government is also pressing banks to continue lending to him, in some cases with the threat of force. "He’s been strong-arming all the local banks to keep credit lines open," said a Western diplomat here who was not authorized to speak publicly.
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More hopefully to Cote D'Ivoire's East... New York Times: Transforming Africa Through Higher Education
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When Patrick Awuah left his native Ghana in 1985 to study abroad, he had little notion of the opportunities that would await him back home 13 years later.
More than a decade of peace, democracy and prosperity made it possible for a Western-educated professional like Mr. Awuah to leave a successful career in the United States and return home with the single objective of improving African society through education.
In 2002, Mr. Awuah founded Ashesi University College, a private, liberal arts college in Labone, a suburb of Accra, Ghana’s capital, with a small class of 30 and big dreams of transforming the continent.
"Africa has reached an inflection point with the march of democracy across the continent," said Mr. Awuah, speaking at the World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha in November, before an audience of education professionals gathered in the Qatari capital to address issues in global education. "We can bring change in one generation. How we train our leaders will make all the difference."
According to Mr. Awuah, the goal of Ashesi, whose name means "beginning" in Akan, the local language of Ghana, is to train a new ethically responsible educated elite to break the cycle of corruption on the continent.
"We want to play a role in the renaissance of Africa," he said.
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With most votes counted in Southern Sudan's referendum, 99% of people have opted for independence from the north, officials say. BBC: Southern Sudan referendum: 'Massive vote to split'
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Official results are due next month but correspondents say the outcome of the week-long poll is not in doubt.
However, the former rebels now running oil-rich Southern Sudan have urged people not to celebrate yet.
President Omar al-Bashir has said he will accept the result of the vote, which was held after years of war.
The BBC's Peter Martell in Juba says this is the news many in the south have been waiting to hear - that the number of votes cast in favour of independence has passed the required 50%.
The results were published on a website published by the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, and officials have confirmed they are genuine.
It says that 83% of votes in the south have been counted, along with 100% of those in the north and the eight foreign countries where polling was held.
Just 1.4% of people have voted for continued unity with the north.
More than 3m ballots have been counted so far, with several hundred thousands still to come.
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The worlds biggest growth market Atlanta Post: Can Blacks Achieve Business Success in China?
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Within approximately a decade, China has accelerated its urban infrastructure development by creating futuristic skyscrapers and sleek, high-speed trains, resulting in the belief by many that the country has surpassed the United States in economic dominance. In fact, nearly half of Americans (47 percent) think China is the world’s leading economic power, according to a Pew survey.
It’s no surprise then that African Americans have begun to head East in search of entrepreneurial and employment opportunities. After all, the unemployment rate for blacks in the U.S. is 15.8 percent, nearly twice the rate of whites at 8.6 percent. China may have billions of people, but its unemployment rate is only 4 percent, and the demands of modernization can equate to employment if you’ve got the talent needed and the courage to make the move.
"In 2005, [my husband and I] had an opportunity to come to China via a family friend who lived here for many years, and [our friend] asked if we’d like to open a new restaurant," said Antoinette Martin, a former food writer and New York City restaurant manager. "I thought it would be a great opportunity."
Martin is among a growing number of African Americans seeking a new beginning in the bustling cities of Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen, where American brands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks and KFC are popular and many Chinese want to practice their English on newcomers.
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Addressing a topic as fraught as race would be challenging anywhere, but it is particularly tricky within the Smithsonian, where difficult topics can become politicized. New York Times: The Thorny Path to a National Black Museum
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In the late 1970s, when Lonnie G. Bunch III had his first job at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, veterans of the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black squadron, accused the museum of playing down their contributions during World War II. In response, the museum asked some of the African-Americans on staff to allow their faces to be used on mannequins, increasing the "black presence" in its exhibits.
"I didn’t do it," Mr. Bunch said recently, who was among those asked. "That’s not the way I wanted to be part of a museum."
Thirty years later Mr. Bunch, and African-American history itself, are part of a Smithsonian museum, but in a very different way. As the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Mr. Bunch, 58, is charged with creating an institution that embodies the story of black life in America.
The pressure couldn’t be greater. To open in 2015, in a $500 million building designed to evoke the art of an ancient West African kingdom, the museum will stand at the geographic center of American civic identity, on the National Mall.
Since Mr. Bunch was appointed in 2005 — two years after the museum was created by an act of Congress — he and his staff have been racing at full speed, commissioning the building, amassing a collection, reaching out to potential donors and future visitors. But as their deadline approaches, and grand dreams have to be refined into gallery layouts and exhibition plans, they are not only juggling details and a $250 million fund-raising campaign, but also grappling with fundamental questions about the museum’s soul and message.
Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup
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Some think that the rule requiring NFL team owners to consider minority candidates for head coach and general manager jobs is no longer needed. The co-creator of the policy disagrees. The Root: Does the NFL Still Need the 'Rooney Rule'?
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New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell was the "it" black candidate this off-season when it came to NFL head-coaching vacancies. Fewell interviewed for the top job with the Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns, all of whom hired someone else. His full slate was due to two factors, his status as a highly regarded coordinator and the NFL's "Rooney Rule," which requires teams to consider minority candidates for head coach and general manager openings.
Established in 2003, the rule has been wildly successful. Former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy was the only black coach when it began; now there are eight minority coaches. This off-season marks the first time that three minority coaches were picked in the hiring cycle (Minnesota's Leslie Frazier, Carolina's Ron Rivera and Oakland's Hue Jackson), and the first time that the majority of head coach job openings (three out of five) were filled by minorities.
Yet, there are those who question the policy's effectiveness, while others conclude that it has run its course. Skeptics and critics complain that coaches are granted "token interviews" to fulfill the mandate, when teams know all along they plan to hire someone else. Another common argument is that the rule served its purpose and is no longer necessary, because teams will now naturally consider minority candidates without being forced.
Attorney Cyrus Mehri scoffs at both notions. "We have not reached the promised land," says Mehri, who teamed with the late Johnnie Cochran to put the policy in place. "There's a lot of hard work to be done, and it's an uphill battle every hiring cycle. We're still trying to open people's minds. We're in the process of changing the hearts and minds of NFL owners and, in turn, trying to open the hearts and minds of America."
You might think the NFL owners get it by now. Of the eight teams in the last four Super Bowls, six of them had a black head coach or general manager. Two of the four teams left in this year's playoffs have black coaches (Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Chicago's Lovie Smith), creating the possibility that the Super Bowl will feature a pair of minority coaches for the second time in five seasons. The director of football operations for Green Bay, another Super Bowl contender, Reggie MacKenzie, is also black. Minority general managers whose teams reached the Super Bowl include the Giants' Jerry Reese, Arizona Cardinals' Rod Graves and Baltimore Ravens' Ozzie Newsome.
"All of those men [except Newsome] came in under the Rooney Rule framework," Mehri says. "All of them would have been easily overlooked and likely overlooked without the Rooney Rule. That's the power of diversity. It has helped white candidates below the radar get selected as head coach, too. The rule forced owners to cast a wide net, going from a who-you-know system to a who's-the-best system."
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Wat too short a sentence for a real scumbag! Chicago Sun-Times: Burge’s sentence not enough to foster healing
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Jon Burge to 4½ years in prison for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the systematic torture of African-American suspects in the 1970s and 1980s.
The sentencing of the former police commander closes an ugly chapter of Chicago’s history but does not in itself foster healing between the African-American community and the Chicago Police Department.
Anthony Holmes, one of Burge’s accusers, raised the question that needs to be answered before any real healing can take place.
"Why did you do this? You were supposed to be the law," Holmes asked, reading from a written statement during the sentencing hearing.
Burge didn’t give an answer.
But it is clear from the long line of African-American suspects who accused Burge of torture, and were later exonerated, that race and status had a lot to do with the abuse.
Most people don’t want to talk about that.
Worse yet, while there was enough evidence of the abuse to result in Burge’s firing, he was allowed to retire to Florida and enjoy a hefty pension for years.
That alone ought to have been enough to trigger a federal investigation. The police brutality that Burge is accused of engaging in was so egregious, the case is often cited by human rights activists as proof that America has its own issues when it comes to human rights violations.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
When the first photos of torture at Abu Ghraib were distributed online; photos of dogs barking at naked, hooded prisoners, while guards smiled at the camera with thumbs-up gestures of a grand accomplishment; many of my more law and order acquaintances argued it wasn't torture; that the allegations of such abuse, the use of dogs, of fire hoses, of solitary confinement wasn't torture because it was common in our own prisons here in the states; that in fact, guards like Charles Graner, had been prison guards stateside, that their tactics and procedures would never muster a legal challenge, let alone rise to the level of a crime. They maintained that Graner was a hero doing a tough job overseas. a job he had done stateside for years, in the same fashion without incident; he was perfectly trained for Abu Ghraib and they saw no problem.
I spoke to a few of those acquaintances after reading Deoliver's essay Sunday on Bradley Manning and the prison industrial complex. They continue to see nothing wrong with solitary confinement; our supermax prisons, they reminded me, even have weekend long cable shows devoted to the practice.
"So I guess that makes it ok," I replied sarcastically.
"The United States incarcerates more people than any other nation," they continued to remind me, "it is a big business and not going away any time soon. But even so, we don't torture; and we certainly don't abuse prisoners. All practices and procedures have been approved by medical professionals."
Plus, it's all on TV.
Charles Graner Is Not America
Let’s get this straight: Charles Graner
is not America. America would never
hold a knife to his wife’s throat, then say
when she woke that he was considering
killing her. And America’s wife in turn
would never call her husband "my own
Hannibal Lecter." Am I right, or what?
Charles Graner may be Hannibal Lecter,
but he is not America. America is not that
kind of husband. Nor would America email
his adolescent children photos of himself
torturing naked Iraqi prisoners and say
"look what Daddy gets to do!" Am I right?
America is not that kind of father. America
would never torture naked Iraqi prisoners.
Let’s be absolutely clear about all of this.
And America’s ex-lover and co-defendant
would never whisper to the sketch artist
at America’s trial: "You forgot the horns."
Charles Graner may or may not have horns,
but America is horn-free. America does not
torture prisoners. America may render them,
fully clothed, to Egypt or Syria, for further
interrogation, or to men like Charles Graner,
but America is not, ipso facto, Egypt or Syria,
and Charles Graner is not now nor has he ever
been America. And don’t talk to me about
Guantanamo. Please! Let’s get this straight.
You and I know who America is. We know
what America does and doesn’t do, because we
(not Charles Graner!) are America. Am I right?
Is this all clear? Tell me—am I right, or what?
-- Geoffrey Brock
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The Front Porch is now open. Chicken and dumplin's on the menu today.
Grab some hot biscuits to sop up the gravy.