Poetry Session #5

I REMEMBER

I remember when I was in undergrad on a typical day that went bad. It was still morning and I was checking my e-mail in the computer lab.

I remember the chain e-mail around ten in the a.m stating there has been been a plane hijacking and there were hostages, so please pray for them.

I remember heading to my first class an hour later and being one of only five people there. The professor didn't even show up, something wrong was going on and we were not aware.

I remember a classmate walked in suggest that class was cancelled as a matter of course. She said that everyone was to stunned by the attacks in New York.

I remember rushing home to my dorm wondering what could have possible occurred to upset the norm.

I remember getting home to see my roommate glued to the T.V. The events on the box were so intense that he didn't even see me.

I remember one- no two planes hit one- no two buildings. I felt a rush of emotions but was too numb to be in touch with my feelings.

I remember it was like watching a movie with a familiar plot and then to our collective horror and shock the buildings dropped. All those citizens, firefighters, and cops. It was like time stopped.

I remember the screams, the tears, the dust, the bodies, the blood, and the fears. I knew this day have aftershocks that would knock us around for years.

I remember predicting how things were going to go about from here on out. This country would be determined to inflict and endure anything in order to regain its clout.

I remember when the culprits were being named. Foreign, Muslim, and brown was enough to get patriotic hearts inflamed. Nothing would ever be the same.

I remember my roommate and I likening these events to “The Siege”, but this time there was no Denzel Washington to help when the rights of a minority would be aggrieved. At that moment I thought about American born Japanese.

I remember being assured that we would be going to war in order to payback these attacks with devastation multiplied by four. But I didn't fully appreciate what was really in store for our young men and women doing tours.

I remember in the face of such pain no soothing words would avail. We would follow a path of force ans stay the course. Cooler heads would not prevail.

I remember the fury of the debates. I remember the consensus to go on the offensive and the hate for those few who said, “Wait!”

I remember the mistakes that were taken for granted, because granted, emotions were still raw. In seemingly quick succession there was a nearly unified expression, followed by projections, faulty connections, threats, and finally "Shock and Awe!"

I remember not truly the widespread and long lasting devastation that one day could cause. I remember us holding to flags and buzz words instead of addressing our flaws.

I remember lost freedoms, renditions, water boarding, terror alerts, two wars, and the rampant Islamophobia being troubling to me. Even in the era of Obama I remember that Osama is out there somewhere still hiding, still plotting, and still free.

-Noface

Torture By Any Other Name, Would Be Just As Wrong!

Torture*
Pronunciation: \ˈtȯr-chər\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, from Old French, from Late Latin tortura, from Latin tortus, past participle of torquēre to twist; probably akin to Old High German drāhsil turner, Greek atraktos spindle
Date: 1540

1 a: anguish of body or mind: AGONY
b: something that causes agony or pain

2: the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure

Water Boarding**

A technique that consists of immobilizing the victim on his/her back with the head inclined downwards, and then pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. By forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences drowning and is caused to believe they are about to die. As early as the Spanish Inquisition it was used for interrogation purposes, to punish and intimidate, and to force confessions.
In contrast to submerging the head face-forward in water, water boarding precipitates a gag reflex almost immediately. The technique does not inevitably cause lasting physical damage. It can cause extreme pain, dry drowning, damage to lungs, brain damage from oxygen deprivation, other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, lasting psychological damage or, ultimately, death. Adverse physical consequences can start manifesting months after the event; psychological effects can last for years.

Let’s be clear, water boarding is torture. It has always been torture and it will always be torture. It doesn’t matter who is doing it or why it’s being done. There is no debate (or at least there shouldn’t be) on this issue. It is a fact and facts are not subjective. Like humans need air to breathe, a technique where a person is not getting that air to breathe (i.e. drowning) causing that person pain and /or agony is by definition, torture. So stop asking if water boarding torture. We should be asking if America does (or has done) torture. Well, America does (or has done) water boarding. So…There goes that moral high ground on which we were so precariously perched.



-Noface
*via Merriam-Webster Online
** via Wikipedia

Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop...Or Be Thrown!

An Iraqi journalist (or from President Bush's point of view, some random Arab) threw not one but two shoes at him. Thankfully, our president was able to duck them both. LOL! I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. When I saw it for the first time on CNN, my jaw hit the floor. I was shocked not because the journalist threw two shoes at our Commander in Chief (an extreme show of disrespect in Arab culture, or any culture for that matter), but because I didn't know that Bush was able to bob and weave like he did. Hey it could of been worse...given the turmoil that the now detained journalist's country had to endure because of "The Decider's" decision to invade a sovereign nation without provocation, our current POTUS is lucky that he had to only dodge footwear and not a bullet (yah, what the hell was the secret service doing anyway?!?). Enjoy!




-Noface
*Disclaimer* although I find the video hilarious, I do not condone the actions of this journalist nor do I support anything being thrown at a head of state (even if it is G.W. Bush).