Commentary:
Study the picture carefully. Men clad only in white shorts, each sitting with his butt on the floor between the knees of the man behind him, all shackled, in a place that tortures people.
You’re a decent sort. Can you imagine putting anyone into that situation? Take the young fools who started firing guns at each other among vulnerable bystanders in Young Park. I couldn’t put one there.
Study the picture. Imagine being one of those men. Stripped of your individuality; freedom a vague memory, no ability to stretch your body or move; never a book or newspaper or chocolate bar, from now until death frees you. Take long enough to let yourself truly imagine it. Imagine that your brother, lover, father, or son is there too, suffering, and knowing there could be no mercy or escape. Ever. Never even a game of chess of dominoes to exercise your mind – and damned sure no tennis or softball.
Imagine that vividly enough to form YOUR opinion of men who would put other men, most not even criminals, into that picture and into the custody of folks who violate human rights regularly, and perhaps enjoy it.
It’s like some old photographs we’ve seen. After months and years, these men will resemble those scared and skeletal Jews and socialists the Allies [our fathers] freed from Nazi concentration camps in 1945.
Understand that these same authorities could put us exactly there if we speak up against them. “But I’m a citizen!” you protest? Their jefe – our jefe – has said “homegrowns” are next. He considers Congresswoman Liz Cheney a criminal traitor.
We had a country where folks could speak up, right or wrong, agreeing or disagreeing with the government, because we had no King, Fṻhrer, or dictator but a democracy, where airing diverse viewpoints in New Hampshire town meetings was our founding dream.
Now contemplate that scientist arriving for a meeting here, getting her computer searched, and getting deported for writing something el jefe might not approve of. Nazi Germany wasn’t quite as paranoid; but, like the Nazis, we’re discouraging visitors, making decent folks uncomfortable and suggesting visitors are vulnerable; and decreasing our commitment to quality education and openness, which helped make us great. Hitler destroyed Picasso’s paintings and Donald Trump now chairs the Kennedy Center.
Just studying the details physically sickens me. Most of those men have absolutely no criminal record, anywhere. Of the men we sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorsimo, 90% have no U.S. criminal record, and just a dozen have serious charges against them. 90%. (The one admitted “administrative error,” Salvador’s jefe, sitting with ours, announced will not be returned.)
What evil could someone do to deserve a lifetime of this, 7,300 days of this torte, if a man lives 20 years. Or perhaps more than 10,000 “days!” A quarter of a million hours.
Can Christians read this and accept that YOU AND I are doing this to men who have never been shown to have murdered or raped, many of whom have never even been brought to trial on any charge? What mental gymnastics make this something Jesus would accept? Wouldn’t your just God sentence el jefe and the rest of us to his Hell, for putting these folks through ours?
Sometimes we have a duty to scream. Loud as we can. Hope some neighbors and friends awaken. Historians still argue about how much the average German knew.
Peter Goodman's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.