Letters

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   HAVE YOUR SAY Feel strongly about something? Share it with the community by writing a letter to the editor. You’ll need to include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) We reserve the right to edit letters, but if you keep yours to 250 words or less, we won’t ask you to shorten it. If your letter is published, please wait 30 days before submitting another. Send it to: E-mail: letters@heraldnet.com Mail: Letters section The Herald P.O. Box 930 Everett, WA 98206 Fax: 425-339-3458 Have a question about letters? Contact Carol MacPherson (cmacpherson@heraldnet.com or 425-339-3472).   Published: Sunday, June 7, 2009 INTERROGATION Only a tyrant resorts to torture The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, "All cruelty springs from weakness." Our government was largely based on the Roman Republic. The Republic became the Roman Empire, a heavily armed corporate state that enslaved the known world to maintain an unsustainable lifestyle for a wealthy few. Our Revolution and Constitution were the first fruits of the Age of Enlightenment. The lodestone of our moral compass was the belief in fundamental rights granted by God to all people, even non-citizens. These rights are spelled out in the Bill of Rights and chief among them is the right to due process and trial by jury. Gen. George Washington specifically refused to allow his army to engage in torture of captured troops. For over three centuries the Roman Republic achieved a delicate balance between citizen rights, responsibilities and a good life. Social "demoralization" started from the top with wealthy families that first took control of the political system and then foreign policy at the expense of the Republic. Within two generations after our Revolution, many of our founding ideals were abandoned. We became an empire after the Mexican American War and the Indian Wars. If tyranny is "arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; oppressive or unjustly severe government" (Webster's), then occupying countries (Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan) without provocation and without a congressional vote to declare war is tyranny. Can anything be more cruel than killing innocent civilians in an unnecessary engagement? Only a tyrant resorts to torture to coerce or intimidate perceived enemies, foreign and domestic. Eric Teegarden Brier

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