Last week I was staying with friends, the gay preacher and his partner, for no particular reason other than that we enjoy each other's company. I stayed the night as usual and opened up a newspaper in the morning. They have a great newspaper. In it was the usual dreaded awfulness of the world, but something caught my attention. It was the story of Bradley Manning, the military analyst who 'leaked' information and is to be tried for that. It wasn't a long story, just a small column, but there is so much wrong with this issue it still hasn't quite settled in me. Of course the fact that he's an educated blond gay man in his early twenties plays a part in that, but on a not-so sexually motivated level I'd also like to vent a few problems.
First of all, why is there so little transparency in government organizations, or any organization for that matter? How can a government have secrets, apart from personal information and military tactical information? It seems rather dangerous to me and a clear sign of something horribly wrong with a government, when information that is not of a directly personal or military tactical nature. I mean, obviously you don't want the enemy to know your next move or what exactly the type of weaponry you have is; and of course organizations should handle personal information with the appropriate care. But what else is there to hide other than something that is malevolent or at least corrupt? If anything, people exposing information that is not in the earlier mentioned two categories, should be lauded and protected - constitutionally.
Then there is the manner of his imprisonment, which I'm really not willing to say anything more about than to label it as repulsive.
And president Obama. Well, he's turning out to be quite the antichrist, so to speak. Condemning Bradley Manning before any trial and such with the poor argument that "this is a nation of laws ... and he broke the law". Law and justice are two separate things, and one would think a president ought to know better than to make a claim as to someone's guilt or innocence before any hearing. Whatever happened to taking "the moral highground" when committing to closing Guantanamo Bay? And whatever happened to that last plan?
Military courts. What is the point!? All I see is another way for the established powers to control people and work their way around civil rights.
A tragic display of what dysfunctional government systems can bring about. Disregard and downright violation of human rights, parading the unfortunate case to frighten the populace and sheer brutality and injustice. Meh, who cares about human rights anyway? It's a damn shame we're such slow learners...
I hope public pressure will sway this in a less wrong direction and Manning will one day be free to be celebrated as a hero, like that other gay fore-fighter of human rights, Choi. If not directly after the trial, at least within a few years. One can only hope, since I am in no position to take over command from the 'commander in chief'.
In this age of information restriction, with this deplorable trial, Wikileaks, SOPA and more of those 'for your protection' acts of government which do nothing but destroy freedom; I guess it is heart-warming to see a movement going against this trend of inhibition and regressing human rights. And of course there are going to be mistakes in this disorganized movement, but that is to be expected. After all, the people haven't got that much experience in the world of convincing large masses of people on a subject. It's a bit like the secular movement in that respect. I think we need just a few more catalysts to really get this ball rolling, in a very unhealthy but nonetheless productive way. I can see very well how we will eventually have to resort to the dirty tactics used by governments, corporations and religions; or simply to violence.
I know on which side I'll be. But this isn't helping my depression*.
Good luck America, and please don't let the (civilized) world end in '20 12'.
Someone should go all 'V for Vendetta' on the bastards...
http://www.facebook.com/savebradleyhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/us-leaks-bradley-manning-logs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/wikileaks/bradley-manning/slideshow-manning-family/
http://www.bradleymanning.org/
* assuming that will actually be the professional diagnosis I'll be getting tomorrow.
2 comments:
The root of all evil in the United States are the intrusive, hypocritical and corrupt Republican and Democratic parties and their elected lawmakers and appointed government bureaucrats. They will practically crucify Manning.
I agree, and I think the only way to improve the state of things over there is becoming clear to the people.
Remove the government and start over.
Post a Comment