Taking a public stand against our country's use of torture

Tomorrow morning I’m heading with my “Torture R US” sign to the plaza in my hometown, Healdsburg. It's a small town described as ”Nestled in the heart of Sonoma's County's wine country, Healdsburg offers relaxation, fun, and adventure for people of all ages. The natural beauty, friendly attitudes, and a cosmopolitan flair suggest the perfect backdrop for a splendid vacation.” I will stick out like a sore thumb.

On March 18th, I posted "Torture R Us" - What do you think? and received comments both discouraging and encouraging me about going public with this message. Given the news this past week about the recently released torture memos and the “torture team,” (the lawyers who advised Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.,) it feels like the right thing to do.

I’m also mindful that it isn’t just “unlawful enemy combatants” that are being tortured. Read Scott Horton’s post yesterday morning, "...Pentagon Moves Ahead on Contractor Accountability," which opens with “Today, The Nation’s Karen Houppert reports on a gruesome rape case out of Iraq. The victim is a young American woman given the pseudonym ‘Lisa Smith’.

“It was an early January morning in 2008 when 42-year-old Lisa Smith, a paramedic for a defense contractor in southern Iraq, woke up to find her entire room shaking. The shipping container that served as her living quarters was reverberating from nearby rocket attacks, and she was jolted awake to discover an awful reality. 'Right then my whole life was turned upside down,' she says….”

My previous posts about torture:
April 3rd: David S. Addington - The man in the torture shadows
March 30th : Whom do you believe? Murat Kurnaz or Bryan Whitman?
March 22nd: Exposure - Bush's refusal to give up torture*
March 21st: From the kingdom of fear....
March 18th: "Torture R US" - What do you think?
March 16th: How could you have done what you did?
March 13th: No Torture. No Exceptions*
Feb. 7th: Letter from Jack Balkin to Senator McCain
November 20th: Our humanity has been compromised

*Posts most worth reading

(stick figure: my friend Pat Denino, who blogs at Wandering Wonderings)

Sunday scooter ride

Earlier today my neighbor Will and I took a ride around Dry Creek Valley. It was my first long trip (about 12 miles) on my Oxygen Lepton.

I’ve known Will since he was four years old. This was our first mini-road trip together. In his twenties and recently back from his second tour of duty in Iraq, Will rode his new motorcycle, slowing way down so he could stay with me as I got used to my sleek black and gray 230 pound behemoth. We stopped at the halfway mark, the Dry Creek Store, so I could check the LED screen on my scooter. When I got back home, I plugged it in, using mostly geothermal power from the nearby Geysers, the largest geothermal development in the world. Over 50% of the electrical energy for my town, Healdsburg, comes from the Geysers.

I’m leaving this afternoon for my son’s ranch out near the Geysers, to help take care of my 13 month-old twin grandchildren. I won’t be posting until I return home on Tuesday.

(photo of Will and me taken in front of the Dry Creek Store, source of the photo of the store; photo of the Geysers: U.S. Dept. of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy)

The greening of a small town

I’ve lived in Healdsburg, California, for 40 years. While other small towns have become swallowed up by becoming bedrooms for nearby large cities, Healdsburg has avoided that. There’s no place I’d rather live.

And last night, when our City Council was asked to consider banning plastic bags, I was heartened by its response and by the turnout of city residents, each with his or her cloth tag bag.

Here’s Heidi, who spoke at the meeting last night:


As interest grows in banning plastic bags, I remind myself that this is just one facet of reducing resource depletion and production of greenhouse gases while creating sustainable communities. That a crowd showed up last night and the city council in my town committed its resources to studying the problem of plastic bags and what to do about them has made me feel more hopeful.

WalMart and Target, both huge retail outlets with stores in cities near Healdsburg, are spending vast sums of money to cut back on packaging.

If I remember to think big but start small, I remain hopeful.

(photo from Obviously.CA)