Dr. Todd's blog

Glad news has arrived today from Washington that compromise was reached in the debate over torture. Saner heads have prevailed, perhaps.

That there would even be debate over torture begs the question of who we are, of what we have become. The rule of law both secular and heavenly makes plain that cruel and inhuman punishment is beneath the dignity of men and nations. Did our dignity collapse in the rubble of the twin towers?

Why would anyone want to defend torture ever? Torture is an unqualified evil that stains our souls. Torments inflicted on body and mind violate the intrinsic dignity and worth of the human being, and erode the character of the nation that tortures.

Moreover, how is it that those who profess to walk with God and speak his wishes condone or even authorize the harm of a human life believed made in his image? Jesus was tortured on the cross by the Roman Empire. How can any Christian support any kind of torture?

On a bright and terrible morning five years ago this day three thousand lives were lost in a series of instants. Three thousand souls were robbed of life, far sooner than anyone imagined possible. Three thousand dreams were ended as dreams inevitably are, abruptly and completely.

How pliable the future must have seemed that fine blue day - until it refused to budge. The eternity that to these three thousand lives appeared to exist did not exist after all. No matter how they coaxed or bribed or pleaded, the future insisted it did not know them.

Why. Why. Why. They don't have any question marks because we already know the answer.

The unthinking and self-satisfying answer is that they died of hate, sacrificial lambs on the alter of our "values and freedoms". Such nonsense. Mass murder requires as motive much more than an adolescent jealousy of the uptown rich kids and their too cool "way of life".

Another election season is upon us, and as custom during even numbered years since that terrible September day we can soon expect to be terrorized by the politics of fear.

Soon fear will invade our airwaves, our morning papers, our civic conversations. Dark warnings of worse to come should we elect a change in government will be issued at daily press briefings and by fair and balanced television networks. Unspeakable dangers will be said to lurk on either side of our present course, eager and ready to devour us should we dare to deviate, and there is no amount of duct tape or plastic sheeting will protect us.

Fear is and has always been a powerful weapon in politics, effective most for the party in power. Sowing fear for votes is a technique as old as democracy, but never so perfected as in recent years. Bringing fear to our doorsteps, and for the small price of a vote promising our safety, has become the modus operandi of American politics at every level, and no major political party is above ringing our doorbells to frighten us.

American Tune

"Many is the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home.

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right
We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong.

And I dreamed I was dying.
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
Looking back down at me
Smiling assuringly.
And I dreamed I was flying.

Late this past week Republican leaders in the House of Representatives caved to pressure from the moderate wing of their party and proposed raising the minimum wage, hammerlocked at a paltry $5.15 an hour since 1997 by the Republican-controlled Congress. But in yet another example of greed disguised as ideology, their proposal was coupled to a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates, a cut that would each year benefit only the tiniest sliver – about 13,000 – of America’s wealthiest.

Tying the elimination of the estate tax to what would at best be called only a modest step towards establishing a living wage for millions of working poor demonstrates once again the Republican leadership’s callous disregard for low-income Americans. Knowing full well that the Senate would vote down any bill eliminating the estate tax, House leaders hope only with this ploy to give cover to their moderate colleagues for the fall elections, while ensuring the wage hike does not become law.

If I were a progressive candidate, I’d speak most about what I would do, and least about what the other guy didn’t do. No quantity of speeches about how bad things are and how awful the other guy is will advance a progressive agenda or grow progressive values in our society.

If I were a progressive candidate, I’d take positions because they were right, not just because they were safe, and damn the political consequences. If because I did so I lose, well then I lose. Hell, this is no time for caution. This is no time for candidates who are technocratic and careful. This is a time for candidates who are passionate, and bold, and brave.

If I were a progressive candidate, I’d speak to voters’ hopes, their worries, and to what gives them despair late at night. And if I didn’t know, I’d be damn sure to find out by asking them directly, not inferring from polls. Voters ask only that candidates know who they are, what they think, what they need, and what their rights are. They ask that candidates care more about people than about what they think. They need candidates who will say to them: "You and me both, pal."

You’re busy, summer’s almost here, the kids are almost out of school, and vacations are being planned. You’ve just got a lot going on, so much so that you almost didn't bother checking in to this site today. You’re also suffering from natural disaster fatigue, political crisis and scandal fatigue, global warming fatigue, and just plain fatigue of our whole seemingly messed-up modern world. So as to not add to your lethargy, I’ll be brief:

Please read Robert F. Kennedy’s article in the June issue of Rolling Stone magazine:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0601-34.htm

I’ll admit to being a Johnny-come-lately to this issue. Maybe as a native Ohioan I just couldn’t believe that men and women in my home state could possibly be complicit in what is quite possibly the largest, and least reported political scandal in American history. No, not that Gore won – that’s old news now! – but that Kerry did.