Justice is not Weak

Dear Mark and Billo,

I'm a liberal and I'm not weak.  I will not role over when you bully me, I will not cede my rights to your "morality".  And if you think that aggression will get you your way, then you are sadly mistaken.  I will dig in my heals and fight you.  I will be respectful and diligent and I will leave no stone unturned until your uncivilized behavior wreaks its havoc on your own goals.  You DO NOT hold the moral high ground for you use threat and violence to scare people into doing your will.  You are tyrants and will fall to the greater will when you have bullied too many.  I am a civil servant and I will fight for civil society despite the threats the you muster for I work for the common good and do not care for fame, infamy or ratings.  I am  Librarian, hear me roar!

I recently ran into a podcast from a Wisconsin conservative radio host (Mark Belling) that railed against liberals being weak because they push for due process and restrictions on torture in terrorism cases.  He says that he could shut down the terrorists in Yemen by torturing the information out of Mutallab (the Christmas Day bomber) and others.

Here's the thing -- I'm not weak.  The reason that I don't want my government to torture people is not out of some touchy feely sympathy, it because it DOESN'T WORK.  If we could get good, actionable intelligence that saved lives by doing totally egregious things to people I might consider it an option, but we can't.  What works is skillful interrogations that take into consideration the life experience and cultural background of the person being questioned.

The other major reason that I can't abide torture and other suspension of rights is that an innocent person caught in this has no hope.  The rules are in place because innocence isn't always clear and the innocent should never by unjustly imprisoned or tormented.  I understand that he wants to "save American lives" at any cost, but he has not considered what abridging others' right could mean to his in time.  We are all vulnerable to political whim if we destroy our system of due process and while the conservatives may have been on top for the last decade, this is not a permanent state and they are deluding themselves if they theink they are beyond the reach of wrongful imprisonment and torture.

Unfortunately the same mindset that thinks torture is a good idea also seems to lead to generally aggressive behavior that becomes very evident in customer service situations.  The customer becomes angry, aggressive and belligerent, they give orders without any respect for process.  This attitude generally leads to one outcome: dissatisfaction.  Why? Because no matter how much I want to help my customers and no matter what liberal views I have about people the fastest way to make me clam up and be my most unhelpful is to be mean to me.

Mark and Billo seem to think that aggressive behavior will get them the things they want in life and that the liberals in this country will role over out of fear.  I admit that elected officials do that most of the time when they run up against any resistance, but for the rest of the civil servants, we are sick of bullies and we will not stand for it.