No.18 Bus - The route goes by Hell

[dotinthesky]

I've been catching my morning bus to work right beside the police station where the British Guantánamo Bay terror suspects were held for interrogations. I saw the cameras yesterday morning and suspected that Paddington Green's police station was the temporary home for notorious men.

It's funny how you can be only a few feet away from people who stand for history and not even realize it. In their case, the history of America's human rights violations. There I was, freezing to death while waiting for the No.18 bus, leaning against the police station, thinking about buying a cup of tea when I got to work, and hoping that no pigeons would shit on my head. Just a few feet away, inside the cells, sat men that had been put through torture and deprivation.

Are these men guilty? And of what exactly? Planning a massive terror attack or simply offering a bed to a terrorist? Guilty by association or action? If we are so superior to them, then surely we could treat them with the same laws we have devised for ourselves?

And, if they were really guilty, would America have returned them to Britain?

I know I'm asking obvious questions. I don't read depressing news that often anymore but, when I do, it's like a month's worth of sewage gets poured into my mind again and again and again.

Thank you kixie for the link.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about it a lot last night. In amidst these big world events and the horrible things going on in Iraq, I suppose it is easier for me to focus on individual injustices. It seems these people are guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the result is years of torture which will take them a lifetime to forget. Life is just so unfairly fragile and you only get the one. How awful to just have your life changed irrevokably for the worse because you're accidentally crushed between large and seemingly senseless political events on the move.

[4q.livejournal.com]

not reading depressing news doesn't mean it's going away