Tucson Air Dates: 2/16/08, 2/18/08
Not long ago a religious, conservative co-worker came up to me, quite distraught. He is an honest enough guy, and we've worked together for 18 years. We do have our differences; he reads his bible in the lunch room, and follows conservative political trends, often raising their talking points, which is quite different from my perspective. On this particular day he was visibly upset.
Pulling me into a room where no one could hear us, he began. "I heard the term 'waterboarding' from time to time, but I thought they were talking about something that had to do with surfing," he said. "I had no idea America was drowning people," For a second, I thought he was kidding, but then I decided he was serious. He had found a line he couldn't cross, and his basic human decency finally overcame his political affiliations.
"It breaks your heart, doesn't it?" I replied.
A couple days ago he confided that he thinks maybe it's time America had a Black president.
For those who feel our protests have not produced an end to the war and all the other horrors modern America is dishing out to us and the world, I offer this fellow as exhibit A. Hold the fort, the converts are coming! Our protests have not been in vain! Rather than give up in exhaustion or despair, we have to do more.
On episode 287 of "Indymedia Presents" we take on the issue of the illegal US prison at Guantanemo, starting with water boarding. A recent rally to shut down Guantanemo in Seattle focused on that atrocity, then brought to the stage Chaplain Yee, who served there as the US Army Muslim chaplain, along with a Seattle favorite, Representative Jim McDermott, (D, WA).
We finish the show off with a little tribute to Martin Luther King Jr, edited up from archival footage by a high school student for the MLK Day assembly at his school. It begins with a white preacher quoting scripture to prove that civil rights was "against God's law." Change came with a big price, and it hasn't been perfect, but Jim Crow was run out of town. Those folks who wonder what will it take to end the American war against Iraq might look to the civil rights movement, or the struggle against the US occupation of Viet Nam for a very good answer.