gurdymonkey | Long time, no see, Rule of Law!

"For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."
- Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776.

It's back, at long last. You know, that little thing that says you can't be detained for no reason. That principle under which torture is unconscionable.

A draft order to close Guantanamo Bay has been prepared by the new administration. (Draft, as in details not finalized, folks.) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090121/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_guantanamo
Because the old administration handled things so badly that people are still waiting for closure eight years after their loved ones were vaporized. Because there are a lot of people in detention at Guantanamo and at Bagram who have never been charged with a crime and are, under the rule of law innocent until proven guilty. Because we watched our country descend to the level of the terrorists. Imprisonment without trial. Torture.

You want to rant about delays and lack of closure, blame the Bush Administration for seven years of mishandling.

You want to cry for justice, remember that "martyrdom" is just going to make the guilty happier. (Random low flying nonsequitur: what if the 72 virgins were ruler-wielding Roman Catholic nuns?)

I watched the World Trade Center burn from my office window in New Jersey. I wondered for hours where my father was (stranded in Manhattan, but safely, at least) and spent days on phones and email trying to find out where people were and comfort someone I barely knew in the SCA whose fiance never came home. We saw the smoke for weeks. I remember helping James put stuff into storage, including a pair of ash covered boots, because he and Brian couldn't not go into Manhattan to try and help that day. I flew to San Francisco out of Newark on a hastily renumbered United Flight a month after it happened and tried unsuccessfully to avert my eyes from the New York skyline on take-off. Not to fly that day would've meant "letting them win." Remember all that "Don't let them win" stuff?

We became Al Qaeda when we abandoned the rule of law. We are dirty. Maybe now we can try to get clean again.

I hope so.