Absolution & Pretending We Don’t Know

Last night I saw the documentary “Tyson” and this morning I have read an op-ed piece, “The Disease of Permanent War” by Chris Hedges. Both are disturbing for what they so plainly say about our values. I suppose that I am not unusual; my memory of the injustices of 2000-08 is fading.

As a viewer, an American viewer, a nagging connection kept rearing its head during the film and in the following hours. Mike Tyson is teaching us something. Surprisingly, the one-sided film – complete with glowing sunsets and an older, wiser Tyson strolling along the beach – may not do him any favors but it may do something for the country. Tyson, in spite of everything that has been hung around his neck, has the chance to move beyond the past. The United States, unfortunately, has not. Dick Cheney doesn’t have to do anything except growl at all of us and the media gives him air time to make his case for the legitimization of torture and other crimes. We, of course, pretend to have a legitmate debate about what counts as torture. As if we didn’t know. Ask a couple of Vietnam vets; ask Abu Gharab prisoners; ask the folks in our Super Max prisons. We certainly find it worthwhile to hold Tyson accountable but, as it usually goes for black men in the US, that may be because their lawyers fall asleep during trial – or, in Tyson’s case, were studying tax code revisions.
If we do not value injustice enough to account for it, it will be erased from our memories unnourished by empathy. And we will be unable to look forward.

~ by thomvernon on June 19, 2009.