Because We're A Just People

Because We’re A Just People

By Armando Gomez

May 23, 2008

How did we get here?  Who is responsible for our “government sponsored” torture?  But the real question is: How was it allowed to continue once it began?  Actually, it began at the inception of our nation.  It began with the “clearing” of the New Land’s original inhabitants when the first Europeans arrived here.  It’s that ancient self-serving attitude of “We’re Number One” that made this country great.  It’s our ruthlessness, our self-determination and our self-delusional and “divine” focus that gave Americans the right to take what they want or worse, to consider what’s before us as “ours.”  Anyone or anything in the way gets rolled over.  This is our history, our American history.  We believe to be a just people but in reality we’re a vengeful and spiteful lot.  With our divine intentions, we have killed our way through history.  We committed genocide against the Native Americans and found it just.  We have abducted others we considered inferior and enslaved them to boot, forcing them to serve “our” needs, to our ends—and again, found it just.  We bragged to the world and history that we are a just nation, through and through.  But we’re quick to forget—or quick to cover-up—the dirty little events of our history.  Slavery and Jim Crow, breaking every treaty we forced down on every Native American and Mexican American we conquered, and breaking the very foundation of laws such as the U.S. Constitution.  We rounded up U.S. citizens and imprisoned them during a time of crisis just because they were of a different color, of a different cultural.  It’s no accident that we elected Ronald Reagan for president, to apply the ointment, to heal our defeat in Vietnam. With Reagan, we allowed ourselves to once again become strong and cruel, but justifiably so.  Since it was fitting, we allowed a stolen election in order to inherit George W. Bush as president—twice.  In him we saw a man we “really” wanted: crude, ruthless and lack of any enlightenment. When we were “attacked” on September 11, 2001, never before did we want to be avenged.  We wanted blood and we weren’t too particular where to “get” it. The whole issue of torture falls naturally into the mix.  So it was natural that when 9/11 arrived—with our full knowledge that President Bush saw it coming—we have welcomed and rejoiced the “torture program.”  This time the denial and the inflicting of pain onto others was truly equitable and we welcomed our complicity—openly!  When Americans became victims in the process, then we say "no more."  Then we “truly” demand justice, because we are a just nation.  Torture is out!  It’s Bush’s fault!  But our collusion in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraid are the latest examples of our righteous nature.  How can we eliminate torture from our experience when it attracts us like a magnet?  By accepting every act of cruelty we visited upon the innocent and the weak in our entire history, as well as our complicity.  Merely saying “no more” no longer suffices.