Chris Satullo from the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a column on July 1 called A Not-So Glorious Fourth in which he recommends against joyous celebration on Independence Day and in favor of reflection and atonement for torture and unlawful imprisonment. He is the first columnist I remember reading who used the word "atrocities." This column may have been diaried earlier, something is tickling the back of my memory about in on the diary list.
We took the coward's way.
The world sees this, even if we are too dim to grasp it. We've lost respect. We've shamed the memory of Jefferson, Adams and Franklin.
And all for a scam. The waterboarding, the snarling dogs, the theft of sleep - all the diabolical tricks haven't made us safer. They may have averted this plot or that. But they've spawned new enemies by the thousands, made the jihadist rants ring true to so many ears.
So put out no flags.
Sing no patriotic hymns.
We deserve no Fourth this year.
Let us atone, in quiet and humility. Let us spend the day truly studying the example of our Founders. May we earn a new birth of courage before our nation's birthday next rolls around.
Mr. Satullo wrote a follow-up this morning, describing how Rush & co. got a hold of his column. Rush apparently demanded a full-on assault from the right wingnutosphere on him over the July 1 column.
I will say this: Rush's listeners have a zest for insult and invective. Correct spelling, not so much. Also, I'm unclear what my sexual orientation (hetero, by the way) has to do with this topic. Wishing death on someone you've never met is unkind, to a degree. And telling someone to move to another country stopped being a witty riposte somewhere around 1967.
His response to the invective gave me goosebumps:
Just seven years ago, who would have ever thought that being against torture could prove so controversial? When did the running of Turkish prisons become an integral part of the American Way?
Will we ever move beyond this dead-end view: If you criticize America on some point, you are unpatriotic, and can't possibly love or honor your country?
So, go ahead, knock my logic or prose style. They're fair game. Scorn the shape of my nose, my manliness, and all the other stuff my kind correspondents attacked.
But do not, do not, question my patriotism. Or that of any fellow citizen. Such words are unworthy of what we owe one another as Americans.
One of the most simple yet stirring columns I have ever read. It goes completely to the root of one thing that has made me so impossibly angry over the past 7 years--that anyone who disagrees with what they say or think is a traitor, an unpatriotic pinko, someone who should leave and never come back. The right may call us cowards and wimps for hating the war, caring about prisoners' rights, and daring to think the Constitution should be law and not a quaint obstacle to be dodged, but in saying all of that they show how badly they miss the point of their own arguments. At least those that have points that aren't slathered in racial epithets and pointless insults.
So go read Chris's column and help get his back. Such attacks by the Rushians shouldn't be ignored!