What's on my mind…

You guys…

…it finally happened.

America is now the closest it will likely ever come to having President Jed Bartlett in the Oval Office. 

Also the first African-American president was sworn into office. But everyone’s hammering on that fact and ignoring the Bartlett-esque oratory skills our new president possesses. 

Observe:

We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people’s strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive. Forty-four people were killed a couple of hours ago at Kennison State University. Three swimmers from the men’s team were killed and two others are in critical condition, when, after having heard the explosion from their practice facility, they ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran into the fire. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They’re our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.    -Bartlett, 20 Hours in America, Part II

and…

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate. Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.This is the price and the promise of citizenship. -Barack Obama, Inauguration Address

Pretty good, eh?

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. -Barack Obama, Inauguration Address

and…

We’re for freedom of speech everywhere. We’re for freedom to worship everywhere. We’re for freedom to learn… for everybody. And because in our time, you can build a bomb in your country and bring it to my country, what goes on in your country is very much my business. And so we are for freedom from tyranny, everywhere, whether in the guise of political oppression, or economic slavery, or religious fanaticism. That most fundamental idea cannot be met with merely our support. It has to be met with our strength. Diplomatically, economically, materially.” -Jed Bartlett, “Inauguration, over there.”

I rest my case. These are exciting times.

In less than a week, Obama has done more for the rights of women than the previous administration did in eight years. In less than a week, he has done more for human rights than the previous administration did in eight years by moving to close Gitmo. 

But it’s been six days. That’s it. He wasn’t kidding about hitting the ground running. However, people need to stop acting like he’s hit the hundred day mark. You remember that, it’s the mark by which we normally judge presidents. 

To say people have high expectations would be a gross understatement. People have astronomical expectations. Can he meet them? I don’t think anyone can. But he’s trying. And contrary to wash Mr. Limbaugh would tell you, he deserves our support.

I’m excited for the next four years. And I’m hopeful. 

…and I’ve had this ridiculous urge to watch The West Wing, ever since last week.

My country tortures people.

Spin it however you want, but when waterboarding is described to me, it sounds like torture, it smells like torture, it looks like torture…so it’s probably torture.

Waterboarding, for those who haven’t heard, is basically drowning people on dry land. The victim is immobilized, tilting downward. The interrogator pours water onto their face-blocking their air passages. The water triggers their gag reflex, causes suffocation and simulates drowning.It can cause damage to the lungs, brain damage from loss of oxygen, broken bones if the victim struggles against the straps and other long-term health problems. Psychologically, it can cause Post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, depression…and who knows what else.

In short, waterboarding messes you up. Forever.

And despite the President stating unequivocally that the United States “does not torture people,” CIA Director Michael Hayden let Congress know that they actually did. Oops.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.  -Friedrich Nietzsche       

The most common justifications are that waterboarding isn’t torture and that it can be justified in extreme circumstances (such as after 9/11). Yet U.S. Generals deemed it illegal during the Vietnam War, we’re still at war and the threat level is yellow (elevated). 

The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the bill of rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak, of anti-communism.  -Adlai Stevenson       

Know who else used waterboarding?

The Spanish Inquisition. The Khmer Rouge. The Gestapo. The Kempeitai. And God knows who else.

Is that a list the United States wants to be on? And does it work well enough for the United States to lose all credibility as a result of using it?

Government officials have said that they received valuable information by waterboarding prisoners…but we’re no closer to finding bin Laden. There are still threats worldwide. There are still operatives and cells out there.

I don’t know how to solve the terrorism problem and bring peace to the world. Neither does my government. What I do know is that we cannot do it by torturing people and thus lowering ourselves to their level.

I want my government to know that, too.

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