Letter to the Editor, final draft

[forsyth]

Okay, final draft, which I'm going to print out and mail tomorrow, barring any major suggestions from people. And the last line may be too inflammatory, but I don't know what to change it to.


The Fourth of July's just past, with the cookouts, car sales, and pretty explosions all right on cue. But the Fourth of July is more than just the cookouts, car sales, and pretty explosions, it's when we celebrate the ideals of our country, and what we stand for. When we celebrate who we are, underneath.

But it's not who we are underneath, it's what we do that defines us. How much does the celebration of who we say we are matter, when we're not acting like it? Does it really make any difference to anyone if we try and insist "We're not like that, really," while people are being tortured in our names? The greatest legacy of our Founding Fathers are our ideals. And if we want to honor those ideals, we have to live up to them.

These ideals don't make us special, except when we live up to them. It's how we live up to them that makes us special. When we ignore those ideals, we ignore what makes us special. It doesn't matter if our enemies are worse, we have to be better than them, not just not as bad. It doesn't matter how often the President invokes the word "freedom," while we lock people away without evidence, trials, or even charges. When we use our enemy's methods, like we have in Iraq, Afghanistan, and even, apparently, Italy, we're sacrificing what makes us different from them. When even the military's own investigations document abuse, torture, and even murder, not just Abu Ghraib, not just Guantanamo, but at Bagram, and numerous CIA installations, does it really matter if we say we value freedom?

The military's own investigations show Abu Ghraib wasn't an isolated incident, or just "a few bad apples." At least thirty prisoners have died, murdered by guards. There have been countless reports of abuse and torture, from many different sources. While these atrocities continue in our names, it justifies the worst our enemies say about us, and drives our allies away. And our government only seems interested in denials and redefinitions of what the meaning of torture is.
In the United States, our government is "We, the People." And what's done in our names defines us as a country. We may be better than torturers and murderers, but isn't it long past time we started acting like it?

(See more about the newest military reports on torture here and here "A few bad apples" holds absolutely no water.)

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Comments

[kalifla.livejournal.com]

Nazi nitpick: it should be "passed", as your contraction in "The Fourth of July's" is made up of "The Fourth of July has", making "past" incorrect.
It can't be "The Fourth of July is past" because it is actually less clear than "has passed."

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

I actually did fix that in my last-last editing run, before I mailed it. Which is good, 'cause I'd debated which way to go for a while. Glad somebody else agrees I made the right choice. Heh.