Before there can be unity, first there must be justice.

[thatcrazycajun]

Two men whose minds and views I generally respect greatly, autographedcat and bedlamhouse, have pointed me to Wil Wheaton's latest blog post, in which he tries to reconcile the tremendous good news of this week's elections with his own seething anger at the events of the eight years prior. (Yes, that Wil Wheaton; young Wesley Crusher is all grown up, writing and has a beard, a wife and kids now. And doesn't that make you feel old?)

Wil's friend counsels him, “We don’t need to take any shit from anyone, but we can not become the bullies we’ve hated. Or else we didn’t win anything at all.” And there is some merit in that thought; if we adopt the methods and attitudes of our oppressors, we become no better than our oppressors. And sooner or later, we will have to start working more on building the better nation we voted for than on gaining partisan political advantage. But I still felt moved to respond to this in Bill's LJ page with some thoughts that have been simmering in my mind all day, and I'm posting an expanded version of them here.

Bill writes, "It is human nature to want your own back, and human nature to get angry at the newly defeated who stridently cry, 'Please don't do to us what we did to you!'" Is it bullying, or giving in to hate, to demand that there be payment for wrongs done? To insist that there be penalties for crimes against humanity, the Constitution, the peoples of the world and our own citizens? To call for an accounting of the damage done?

Before we heed the urging of our newly elected President to join hands with our opponents and sing "Kumbaya," I believe there must be such an accounting. Before there can be unity and peace, there must first be justice. Before we can rebuild, we must first tear down the evil edifice built on the ashes of our ideals and laws. And that begins with demanding the builders be called to account.

For the thousands dead and maimed for life—both American and Iraqi—in a war and occupation that has lasted five years and cost us billions of dollars and the goodwill and respect of other nations, a war that did not need to be fought, but was waged solely for the self-aggrandizement of one man, the lust for empire of his advisors and the lust for oil wealth of his friends in industry.

For the thousands who died in New York City, in Arlington, VA and in a Pennsylvania cow pasture on a crisp fall day in 2001, who have lain unavenged for seven years while the chief architect of their murders remains at large.

For the uncountable millions of pregnant women around the world who have died or suffered unimaginably because of this administration's regressive approach to federally-funded family planning (the infamous "Mexico City" policy).

For the hundreds imprisoned and tortured unjustly, without charges or due process, at Abu Ghraib and at Guantanamo Bay—in the latter case, some even after they were told they'd been cleared and would get to go home.

For the millions of innocent American citizens who found their phone calls and e-mails spied upon, their freedom of speech curtailed, their travel restricted and their pasts investigated by an administration that demanded untrammeled liberty for itself alone.

For the dozens of US attorneys fired because they saw the conflict between their consciences, the law and duty on one hand, and their boss' demand that they abuse their authority to prosecute for political reasons alone on the other.

For the thousands who died in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, in my home state and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast, because this administration failed to see any need for advance preparation to deal effectively with such disaster before it happened—even after having been warned, on videotape yet!—and then dealt ineptly at best and cavalierly at worst with the resultant death and destruction when it did happen, considering the wiping out of these people and their homes merely divinely-sent urban renewal.

This isn't merely a case of "wanting our own back" or a desire to deliver tit-for-tat. This is retribution, the justice that the dead, injured and mistreated demand, the punishment that prevention of a recurrence of such abuses absolutely requires. Now that (one hopes) saner, cooler, more righteous heads have prevailed, the ones they displaced must roll. There must be arrests, and trials, charges filed and evidence presented. And the people who authored all of this evil, from Junior Bush on down, must be judged by a jury of their (alleged) peers. A message must be sent to any other would-be tyrants—of the left or the right—that they cannot hope to get away with the same acts in future.

And to those who say our new President's claim to seek a calmer, more bipartisan way of doing the people's business is given the lie by his choice of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, I have just one word in judgment of his selection: GOOD!! This President-elect has already demonstrated that he is capable of straying too far off the reservation when it comes to his party's first principles, in the name of compromise and cooperation. I sure as hell want him to have at least one honest-to-FDR, take-no-prisoners, partisan-as-all-hell pit bull with plenty of battle scars in close reach of him to warn him when he's about to give away the store. He'll also need such a gut-fighter to take out the slings and arrows his enemies—who are already legion—will aim at him, that his desire to see the best in people might prevent him from spotting in time and/or dealing with appropriately. "Rahmbo" seems to me an excellent choice in both regards.

Make the guilty pay. I say—and pay and pay and pay—and put measures in place to prevent any more like them from coming along. Then we can reach across the aisle to the reasonable minds still there and start building.

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Seldom has so much been said in so few words. Thank you, sir.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

I'll use a few more words than filkertom... ;-)

As you've pointed out we need this justice and failure to get it will possibly leave us even more broken that we have been for the last 8 years.

The American people as a whole have been hurt and we need to confront and deal with those that hurt us or we will find no closure to the situation.

I'm being patient to see if that closure comes or if they try and use a band-aid on the wound.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I have faith that the incoming administration has more wisdom than to undertake the path you urge in the manner you urge it. Or in four to eight years, we can just go through all of this again. And again. And again

I will repeat what I have said before: This doesn't help. It's part of the problem. And I'm more interested in solutions than revenge, even revenge masquerading as justice.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

I would add that needing justice, over and over again, is why the Middle East is still not at peace. And why it took so long in Ireland.

Eventually, everyone has been harmed so badly by everything that's gone on that they demand justice for it, thereby causing others to feel harmed, and the cycle never stops. :-/

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Let me point you, then, to a recent post that expresses my feelings on the subject, and quote that segment:

This is a movement designed to be effective. That does not mean the lack of principle and worship of political expediency that politicians have mistaken for "pragmatism." It means refraining from wasting time and energy or compromising effectiveness for the sole pleasure of venting the spleen and feeling like lords of creation. There will certainly be investigations, purges, and prosecutions. God knows there is plenty to investigate. But they will not be witch hunts for the pleasure of it, despite the fact that you will no doubt see them as such. Still, you would be advised to cooperate when given an opportunity, because this is not about revenge but about trying to repair the damage and make government function properly again.

Do not mistake the failure to take revenge as weakness. Or, perhaps better, do make such a mistake. You will only make it once. Think of it as evolution in action or, if you prefer, relentless and intelligent design.

Not for revenge, but for closure. To build a solid foundation to build on, with the focus on building. This is where I hope we're going.