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November 14, 2005

Shame on Wyden

I heard somewhere recently that there are only two basic human emotions: fear and love. Every other emotion springs forth from these two basic, boiled-down, visceral things.

Whether or not this is actually correct, it makes sense to me. These two primal emotions appear to be what drives much of what we do as human beings.

I guess that's why it's a bad idea to create policy bred from emotional response rather than reason and logic.

During last week's Senate session, Senator Lindsay Graham put forth an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill that would eliminate habeus corpus for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. My Democratic Senator, Ron Wyden, stood up with Graham in support of this amendment.

I've never been more dissapointed in someone I voted for. And that's saying something. I voted for Clinton (twice...and the Lewinsky thing pissed me off with how stupid it was) and for my current Democratic Congressman whose votes on Medicare and the Bankruptcy bill have me convinced to seek out a new candidate next year.

My senator is working to suspend a basic legal right that has been around since the 14th Century and in general practice since the 17th Century. How are the American people made safer by removing the rights of these individuals to know if they're legally incarcerated or not? How is justice served for anyone under these circumstances?

If habeus corpus can be suspended for foreign detainees..how long until it's suspended for American citizens? How can we declare that all men are created equal when our lawmakers have decided that their fear can dictate that some men aren't worthy of even knowing if they're being falsely imprisoned?

As is pointed out here, we put criminal Nazis on trial in the bright sunlight of open court. We didn't hide behind fear and injustice in order to deal with the Nazi scourge. That's one of the ways we know that Nuremberg was right...it's on the record in front of public view. Who can trust these secret tribunals where even the basic tenets of justice are suspended?

Shame on Ron Wyden for allowing his fear to grip his decision making process on this matter. Shame on him for representing Oregon in such a lackluster and untoward manner.

I am contacting Senator Wyden's office today to express my displeasure and dissapointment with his actions. I implore my fellow Oregonians to do the same. Or if you're in North Carolina, contact contact Lindsay Graham.

Governing by fear ruins us all.

Posted by Carla at November 14, 2005 09:04 AM