Show, not tell
The fundamental principle in many writing classes is to show what is happening in your story by having characters speak and act, not to narrate events. This has often seemed to me to be a good model for daily living. Don't rely on telling people what to do. Show them what you mean by your own actions. Be a role model. Lead instead of push.
Unfortunately, the American government today doesn't seem to have caught this message. As reported in the New York Times, the State Department has detailed an array of human rights abuses last year by the Iraqi government in the department's annual report on human rights. [Link]. The report cited "reports of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, impunity, poor prison conditions - particularly in pretrial detention facilities - and arbitrary arrest and detention," but did not mention abuses at Abu Ghraib.
Is this the same American government of which we hear charges of abuse in Abu Ghraib, about detention without legal recourse in questionable conditions at Guantanamo Bay, about seemingly arbitrary arrests of people on suspicion of terrorism, and the remarkable practice of extraordinary rendition?
Before I am written off as a bleeding heart liberal Bush basher, let me slip in the idea that my concern is with fundamental principles of our government and of future treatment of our troops in the field. I understand that it is much harder to stay within the law when the other guy doesn't bother. It is difficult to have open trials while protecting your agents. And it is enormously frustrating to be convinced that another is a threat and evil to boot, but not to be able to do anything about him (or her) because of legal restraints.
And yet, if we do not follow "the rules", it becomes that much more difficult to demand that the other guys do so. Were I the other guy, I would laugh at the posturing of a government that demands a nuclear free condition for me while building a new generation of nuclear weapons. I would say to America, "Show, don't tell" me what to do.
posted by AkLewy at 11:14 AM
2 Comments:
Why would issues of US troops abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib be in a report on Iraqi government human rights violations? That doesn't make any sense.
Aside from the issue that it doesn't belong in a report with that topic, I don't see how there's any comparison between US soldiers making Iraqi prisoners pose naked for photos, then getting court-martialed and sent to prison themselves and Iraqi officials kidnapping, raping, and murdering citizens without any repercussions.
The point to my posting is that we seem to be following the same practices we condemn. We tell others "no nukes" but start progams for nuclear bunker buster bombs. No kidnapping, we say, but rendition has significantly incresed and reversed direction. Instead of bring people to the US for trial, it is now used mostly to take people abroad for interrogation outside US law. We condemn secrecy in government, but we have the most secretive government in our history. We condemn lack of a free press, but the administration is hiring journalist to write and publish articles as if they were news.
As I said, the times we live in make it especially difficult to follow our own rules. When we don't do so, I grow concerned about our path and our leadership. When we say one thing and do the opposite, I am concerned for our credibility.
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