Rolling Back the Clock of Progress

This week past week saw assaults on our constitution that may be irreparable. From the Public Expression of Religion Act to the recent Pro-Torture bill, our constitution is weakened and due process is a thing of the past.

Since the Magna Carta, the Writ of Habeas Corpus has stood the test. When the King was able to throw anyone into the gaol without due cause, Habeas Corpus was the call from the bench. "Show me the body." In other words, present the accused and let us hear the body of evidence.

Detainees, for whatever cause, should have their day in court. Why, you may ask? Because we could be wrong about why they are there. We do not have to be right, by the way, without the Writ. There will be no proof, no hearing, no evidence needed without the Writ as a standard. It is what makes justice possible. It is what holds us accountable to one another. It is what makes us a just a free society. But it is no longer untainted. Once compromised, it can be again. If anything justifies the weakening of it, then anything can from here on out.

Now, want to sue someone for a constitutional infringement of your beliefs? Well be prepared to pay. No more, or at least alot fewer, cases will be taken on contingency. The Public Expression of Religion Act, which passed the House this week, says that if a plaintiff wins a case, the attorneys can no longer sue the losing defendant for fees.

If your rights are impeded, I hope you are rich. The poor or rather, the 80% rest of us, will merely have our rights trounced upon with little to no support to fight back.

Oh yeah and in case this slipped by you, we legislated ourselves the right to torture. The media has been concentrating on the technique of waterboarding like it was the only abhorrent means of torture, like maybe beating, holding stones over your head for hours at a time, starving, light and sensory deprivation, drugs, electric shock, are not worth mentioning. What we have done here is try to define, measure or otherwise quantify pain and punishment. One degree less than whatever causes severe mental pain and long term suffering is not torture.

And to whit, just how do you teach the recognition of that degree to folks who generally do not have education in biology, anatomy, psychology, and who in the moment of exacting of this punishment are likely to not care anyway?

It is perhaps worth noting that we discuss and debate torture as an impact on the tortured without EVER considering the box of demons we unlock for those who do our bidding.

Torture is not a deterrant. It is not a construct and those at either end are not merely agents of that construct. Torture happens to all in the room.

It is you and me abusing each other, rendering us broken, disabling and killing one another.