There are days when I despair that no matter what one does, nothing is going to change. Manning and Wikileaks threw light on some serious wrongdoing. It got nowhere. Occupy happened. And then was promptly forgotten. Children got mown by gunfire. Did nothing to move the lawmakers. It is so easy to be cynical. What a hopelessly doomed world we live in!
And then hopelessly doomed prisoners remind me that perhaps all is lost but one must still act. Hunger strike by the Guantanamo prisoners brings the most powerful man on earth, the President of the United States to admit that Guantanamo was a "lingering problem that is not going to get better" and "we need to close it".
Now I know, words come cheap. Pres. Obama hasn't said or done anything about it for 4 years instead choosing to "look forward". Nobody expects him to succeed in closing Guantanamo. Hell! he couldn't pass gun control after New Town.
And then hopelessly doomed prisoners remind me that perhaps all is lost but one must still act. Hunger strike by the Guantanamo prisoners brings the most powerful man on earth, the President of the United States to admit that Guantanamo was a "lingering problem that is not going to get better" and "we need to close it".
Now I know, words come cheap. Pres. Obama hasn't said or done anything about it for 4 years instead choosing to "look forward". Nobody expects him to succeed in closing Guantanamo. Hell! he couldn't pass gun control after New Town.
Still, it moves my heart that these 100 people, held without trial (most of them cleared for release years ago), forgotten by the world, left to die in a no man's land have shown such bravery.They deserve to be heard, to be remembered. We have failed them and we should be sorry. I know I am.
Update: Andrew O'Hehir has a brilliant piece about it in Salon. As he puts it, "(the hunger strike) has shamed Obama and forced America and the world to face “one of his most glaring failures."
Update: Andrew O'Hehir has a brilliant piece about it in Salon. As he puts it, "(the hunger strike) has shamed Obama and forced America and the world to face “one of his most glaring failures."
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