Rights Groups Send An Open Letter to President Obama and Ashton Carter: Free the 57 Guantánamo Prisoners Approved for Transfer
Another Memorial Day is upon us. A time to remember our troops, living and dead.
Will we also remember these men? They have spent one more year in captivity, one more year away from their families, one more year having not been charged with any crime.
A couple of years ago, I organized a protest against the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. We held it on the fourth of July, across from our federal courthouse. We donned orange jumpsuits and held signs. My sign had the photo of a prisoner who died waiting to be released. He was never charged with terrorism or any other crime.
As our group stood there on the corner, a car stopped at the intersection. A man yelled "Communists!"
A woman from our group yelled back "Fascist!"
I called to the man "Locking people up indefinitely without trial is what communists do! We are supposed to be better than that!"
He turned his attention back to his driving, saying nothing more.
How odd that we assume the people at Guantanamo Bay are "the bad guys" and the ones who have tortured them are "the good guys". How does THAT work?? How is it that I am "unpatriotic" because I think those who have been cleared for release should actually be set free?
Terrorism is not my worst fear. More than this, I fear that my children could grow up in a country where even they could be detained indefinitely, without charge, having never committed a crime.
That should scare the hell out of us all!
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