It's July 4, 2009. This Independence Day feels better than the last eight, truly. Whether Obama or McCain had won, we knew that either of them would inherit the mother of all bad hands. And yet despite all the economic turmoil of the past year, I still feel more optimism than I have in approximately a decade.
Why? Obama-fever? No, not quite. I do like Obama, but yesterday I watched Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure. I had wanted to see it in theatres but missed out. I found it available on streaming Netflix earlier in the week and got around to it during yesterday's day off. (I also had it on the brain due to a mention during This American Life's recent "Fall Guy" episode.)
It took me a while to see where Morris was going with SOP. But isn't the point that, while yes, everything we see in the Abu Ghraib photos is despicable, it's also something of a distraction? Something of a convenient incident for a show trial? And something quite minor when compared to what was happening "off camera?" All of the interviewees talk about being instructed to soften up the prisoners for interrogations...
I guess the punchline is that while sicking dogs on detainees (yes, some prisoners were bitten); forcing them to masturbate; fooling them into thinking they might be electrocuted; etc.; is torture, it is the tip of the iceberg. The iceberg being systematic, illegal torture condoned by the highest ranking people in our political system. Lyndie England? Pawn. As I write this, do you realize she is only 26?
I don't think it's possible to succeed in politics without compromise. But I also think we have emerged from some very dark times.