Jesus Bomb?" and "What Would Jesus Drive (Ride)?"
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/no_blood_on_our_hands.php
No Blood On Our Hands
Sister Dianna Ortiz
March 25, 2005
Good Friday brings Christians once again to the darkest day of the year, the
torture and death of Jesus.
For those of us who are both Christians and survivors of torture, Good
Friday has an additional meaning. It is but one more reminder that for the
tortured, every day is Good Friday-in the sense that during every day of the
year, there are those who hang on one government's cross or another,
tortured as was Jesus 2000 years ago.
From that day to this, governments that torture have justified what they do,
saying "What we have done is only what we had to do." Rather than calling
it torture, we are assured that what is done-whatever it is-is "for the
protection of the state, the protection of you, the people." If questioned
closely, we are assured that, "There is no blood on our hands." If there is
blood-that is, if it cannot be denied that blood has been spilled-then it is
not the leaders who spilled it but, only those on the lowest levels from
whom such barbaric acts may be expected.
So it has been for a long time, and so it is today. Our leaders attempt to
keep secret what they do. When they are caught, they claim that what they
do is not what they do-that is, they lie. When they cannot deny what was
done, they blame others-those far from them, "hillbillies" and "bad apples"-
intentionally using code words to imply, "They are not like us. What can you
expect from those with no culture?" It is as if what happened on that
Friday so long ago was caused by a few Roman bad apples, low-level soldiers,
standing around the cross, acting on their own to produce that death agony
taking place there.
In this, the holiest time in the Christian calendar, what might we ask our
leaders? What might we ask that-although they will not give it- is within
their power to give?
In the spirit of Easter, might we at least hope for a resurrection of truth
from President George W. Bush and those who work for him? Instead, what we
hear is something like: "Renditions occur, it is true, and indeed to
countries that torture. But we make sure to ask them if they intend to
torture this particular person and they say, 'No, of course not.' And we,
of course, believe them." We are asked to accept this type of statement as
truth. Donald Rumsfeld certifies procedures which are plain and simple
torture (not abuse), yet he meant them to be used only in Guant‡namo- not in
Iraq, for heaven's sake. He is not responsible for what happened there.
It's
those bad apples. All agree they must be punished, and they are. No blood
on Rumsfeld's hands.
Apparently, while he was White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales decided
nothing, influenced nothing. He just passed on memos from the Justice
Department to the president. No blood on his hands. And the president
himself? He states to the world that the U.S. position on torture is never
: to anyone, anywhere, any time for any reason. Yet he had signed the
rendition order long before he made that statement on June 26, 2003. No
blood on his hands.
If the Bush administration won't stop torturing-and apparently they
won't-will
they not, at least, stand up and tell the truth? The de facto policy of the
Bush administration is to torture. Own up to it. Tell the truth. That indeed
would be an Easter miracle.
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