Bright Words For Dim Times


The debate we are having about the merits of holding prisoners of war indefinitely without trials, legal consultations or Geneva Conventions protections should cut to the core of our beings - even if it hasn't.

We are free people. Should we extend our freedoms to others even if we don't agree with their beliefs or methods? Should we worry about detaining people without proof of a crime?

I ran across some smart words this week that merit repeating. They come from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

"What I am trying to do with my time in the Senate during this whole debate we're having is to remind the Senate that the rules we set up speak more about us than they do the enemy. The enemy has no rules. they don't give people trials, they summarily execute them and they're brutal, inhuman creatures. But when we capture one of them, what we do is about us, not about them.

"Do they deserve, the bad ones, all the rights that are afforded? No. But are we required to do it because of what we believe? Yes."