THE PRESIDENT SPEAKS TRUTH

DEAR FRIENDS,

As we celebrate the Memorial Day Holiday, it is a really good time to remember what the United States of America is all about ... the freedoms, the respect for life, the joy of choosing one's destiny. When I think of the USA, I do not think torture of another human being under any circumstances is a right that I or any other American can claim.

Growing up in the Mid West, I very clearly remember the study in history classes about World War II and how millions of people deemed undesirable were tortured and killed. I would say to myself how proud I was living in a country where people would never torture other people for any reason. Living in a democracy, I thought, meant respecting the humanity of all people regardless of who they were or what they had done.

When I got older, I actually got involved in the prison movement, in the criminal justice system and in promoting humane treatment of all institutionalized persons. This included day care centers for children, nursing homes for the elderly, mental health facilities for the unfortunate, even abandoned children and adults with disabilities. Through this experience, I can tell you - people are tortured by others right here in the United States. People who think they are justified in using any means to get to the end results - they claim "it is for the best."

Torture is never, never a justifiable means!

To learn more about what goes on in your country - visit your prisons or jails, go to your local nursing homes or mental health facilities or find out how children are being treated in the foster care system of your state. Then you might understand how the former Vice-President Dick Chaney justifies torture and gets away with it. He has a lot of company. However, justification by many does not make torture of even one person right. If you still have doubts - study Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Einstein, Mother Teresa, and so many others who champion justice, freedom, and love for all humanity.

President Obama really keeps "talking truth" in his speeches about the evils of living in a democracy like the United States and at the same time allowing torture to exist as our way of "protecting our country." We cannot protect ourselves from evil by being the very instrument of evil - any where - in our homes, in our institutions, in our prisons, in our schools, in our churches and justifying the use of torture, beatings, cruel and humiliating actions as a way of controlling other human beings.

I once read, "Beware those for whom you make life not worth living."

Please whenever you have the chance - take the time to be the change you wish to see. Let the only instruments you use and agree to when you are in charge of another human being - be the instruments of peace, love and compassion.

What do you think?

Write to amber@ambersilverstar.com

Celebrate your country this weekend. Happy Memorial Day.

Amber Silverstar