Recognizing Default Responses

After our class lecture on Default Responses I left class like a dog with Its tail tucked realizing that I make judgements all day long!  I decided that I would try to see how long I could go without passing judgement on someone.  Well It didn't last long.  While driving on to the Boulevard a giant jacked up pimped out black truck pulled out quickly in front of me and forced me to slam on my breaks to avoid hitting him.  Automatically I thinking to myself "everyone that drives big truck are such egotistical narcissistic jerk wads!?" Its true I though that.  I reflected back to the time some friends and I were road biking by Veyo and an impatient driver of a very large truck flipped us off and smoked us out because he had to wait 20 seconds for my friend to move over before she reached the top of a hill. I fought the urge to have ill feelings towards the rude actions of this driver and thought, maybe he is in a hurry.   Not 5 minutes later, I was force to stop my car in the middle of the boulevard because another monster truck decided that he wanted to attempt to cross the road even though he could only get half way across, with as a result made everyone driving in the inner lane on the Boulevard have to stop and wait for the opposite side of traffic to clear so that he could continue on and move of of our lane.  Again, My auto response was “Another self centered idiot stop the world!” And so my day continued, I found myself correcting my thoughts all day long! Its easy to revert to our primary certitude, our quick judgment in our head, we all do it. And I don't think that is unnatural. I think moving forward with that though and turning it into a hidden assumption or ethnocentric assumption, where it is so ingrained that we don't question, is a problem.

My last “On the Media Post” was on Guantanamo Bay Detention Center (GTMO) where extraordinary dangerous (mostly terrorists) are interrogated for war crimes. I sided with the Americans and Leaders in favor of shutting down the camp for two main reasons. Some of the Prisoners that have been held for 25 years and not yet convicted criminals. Our country follows a law of “innocent until proven guilty”, and this is not the practice there. Secondly I feel that abuse and torture is inhumane and I would rather risk the chance not extracting information out of a tortured abused human, and the aftermath that may follow, then to have our county become like the inhumane monster that we are trying to stop. This was my conclusion to me post. As soon as I finished typing a little thought popped into my head, yes, but you have not directly suffered or lost someone at the hands of a terrorist. Would my view be different if I or a love one was injured, killed, or fought in war and had to view all of the death and inhuman acts cause by these monsters?

Yesterday in class I got a text that our friends son was one of the victims of the terrorist explosion in the brussels airpot. I sat in excruciating anxiety for almost an hour until I heard he would be getting surgery and would recover. The thoughts that went through my head were much different then when I previously wrote this paper. My primary certitude was under question. I don't believe that I ever had a strong enough view on GTMO that it would be classified as a hidden assumption or ethnocentric position, I'm just not sure where I stand on this issue. Despite that agonizing hour that I did not know the outcome of our friends son in the Brussels attack, I again feel peace knowing now that he is Ok. There are thousands of people out there that have suffered a different outcome from terrorist and their destruction, I have not been where these people have been psychologically, emotionally and psychically. I have not suffered and lost what they have lost. I guess my point is that I will continue to have to remind myself to be slow to make judgements, and try to understand walking in others shoes before criticizing and grouping and making blanket statements on groups of people.

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On the Media- Guantanamo

One the Media- "What Guantanamo Means to the American Public and for Jihadists."

If only right and wrong were black on white.  This disturbing podcast is a tough mess to unwind.  After 911 many different unfortunate changes took place in our country, this detention camp located with in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is on of these changes.  The Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, also called Guantanamo or GTMO (pronounced  gitmo) was established in 2002 to detain extraordinarily dangerous people to interrogate and prosecute for war crimes.

The camp because it is in Cuba is considered outside US legal jurisdiction and as a result abuse and torture are reported.  Off the bat my personal moral feelings say that this is wrong and that no human being should be treated this way.  And that is not to make mention of one of the most sacred principles in the American criminal justice system, holding that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. In other words, the prosecution must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, each essential element of the crime charged.

What if torturing one criminal could stop another attack of innocent American lives and prevent another 911?  Then is it justified?  If it means saving thousands of Innocent Men Women and children form another brutal attack is it Ok then?  I just don't know. It seems so simple in an episode of "24"   
where Jack Bauer (a fictional character) a member of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) frequent use of torture to gather information has generated much controversy and discussion. I would find myself siding with him every time when emotional involved in the story line. One problem with this was that Jack Bauer haunch was always right.  What happens when the system is wrong and an innocent person is detained tortured and abused? 

In 2006 the United Nations called the camp to be closed, but it remains open to this day.  As of January 2016  93 detainees remain in GTMO. Obama has been pushing to close the camp and move the detainees to to main land.  Republican Nominees like Mark Rubio are pushing to keep it open.  Some fear that even if the camp is shut down and moved to the mainland, that the same inhumane practices will continue.  The George Bush doctrine was "forever prisoner of a forever war"  this thought process will not change anything wrong happening in GTMO other then the location. 

Some of the detainees have been detained for 35 years and still never charged, but are tortured and treated as if they are guilty.  Obama believes that GTMO is counterproductive and that the Jihadis use the camp as propaganda to recruit for their cause.  Isis has made mention of GTMO as did Osama Bin Laden.  Joe Biden claims that GTMO is the single greatest propaganda tool used for recruiting, and thus pushes his argument for closing down this camp. This may not be a strong argument for shutting down the camps alone.  In a 700 page declaration put out by ISIS the word Guantanamo was only mentioned 4 times.  where words like Zionism and crusade was mentioned 387 times. The Jihadist in fact use so very many platforms to evoke anger towards Americans such as global warming, alcohol, gambling, using and objectifying women for advertising, large corporations, deceitful media, breaking up of families, spreading obscenities, cluster bombs, Afghanistan, Iraq etc.  If GTMO is a tool to criticize Americas it is in a tool bag with countless other tools or complaints to criticize and evoke hatred toward Americans.  

 I feel more important then GTMO being counterproductive, which is arguable, a more decent and lawful and humane reason to shut down GTMO is to uphold the principles on which this country was established; Democracy, respect, ethical, honorable, lawful, and upright, decent and humane are the words in which I would like our country to be associated.  If the United Nations is against GTMo then that is a sad indicator of how low our country has gone.  Yes you could say that there is a chance that a future attack may take place because people were not abused and tortured that have not been proven guilty), but I would rather suffer and be upright then cling to false security and be the torturing abusing monster.  What good is protecting this great country if you become a monster like the enemies you are protecting it from?