What's good for the goose...

As one of the class requirements for the Public Theology class, we were asked to write an op-ed piece. My draft of the piece was submitted a few weeks ago, and I’ll be getting feedback not only from Dr. Thistlethwaite, but from Charlie Madigan, long-time writer for the Chicago Tribune.

While I’ll share the finished piece on this blog, I wasn’t ready for the draft to make its public debut. One of the reasons I chose the subject matter of torture, though, was because it keeps coming around for discussion, and I didn’t see that fact changing at least through the next presidential election. Of course, the current reason for attention to the subject comes because of the hearings regarding the potential new attorney general, Michael Mukasey.

Apparently, the crux of the problem for Mukasey is that he’s been a good judge, but now that this White House has asked him to come on board, he’s developed a problem with being straightforward, a problem he might have considered ahead of time given some of the things this administration has said/done over its years of power. He cannot directly answer questions about a torture technique known as waterboarding because it’s quite likely that the technique has been/is being used with White House knowledge. For him to openly state that it is torture would open some of our citizens to charges of violations to the Geneva convention, at least, and allow for potential prosecution on those charges.

Administration officials seem to be unwilling to allow the rest of the world a chance to weigh in on what we Americans do. They seem to believe that as long as an American official is doing it, it must be right, a dangerous game to play considering that these same officials would not want other countries to have the same right.

If we really believe in the Golden Rule, or in Jesus’ greatest commandment, we have to be willing to treat people as we would want to be treated, to not do things to others that we would not want done to us. I would like someone in our administration to explain how he/she would feel if American personnel serving in other countries were to be strapped to a board, have their faces covered, then have water poured onto their faces such that it enters their lungs and leaves them believing they will be drowned. If our administration is OK with that, then please be honest with the American public. If our administration is not OK with that tactic being used, then they should be willing to stand up and take the necessary consequences for allowing it to be used against others. And Michael Mukasey, as a judge, should stand for the rights of all.