[act-ma] Good Friday Davis Square Crucifixion

[Roger Leisner]

Check out the photos of the "Bicycle Lady of Somerville".Whenever I hear Noam Chomsky being asked the question, "What can we do?", I think of Susan McLucas and thousands of other unsung peace heroes.
I wanna walk up the side of the mountain,I wanna walk down the other
 side of the mountain,I wanna swim in the river, lie in the sun,I wanna try to be nice to everyone.**********************************************************************************

I stood out in Davis Square of Somerville, MA on Good
Friday for half an hour holding a crucifixion position (as much of the time as
I could, which was most of it) with signs pleading for the closing of
Guantanamo.  One said "It's Good Friday.  Close
Guantanamo."  The other said "American Crucifixion"  

The connection between Good Friday and Guantanamo is that we often think that
things have gotten more civilized since the time of the crucifixion and that we
no longer do things like that.  But it's just out in the open that we
don't do them anymore.  Our torture is hidden away in secret detention
centers, many of which are still open today.  

Obama has continued Bush administration policies of claiming the right to hold
some people without charging or trying them, even though most of us thought
that we got the right to challenge our detention in the Magna Carta, and we
were hoping that habeas corpus still applied.

Instead of feeling sad about a torture and killing that happened two thousand
years ago, at the hands of the Roman Empire, let's put that same compassionate
energy into feeling outraged that our own government is holding thousands of
Muslim men, still, without due process, and many of them are being
tortured.  

The "war on terror" is based on lies, which are extracted from people
under torture.

Every Friday, for the last 4 years, I've worn an orange jump suit to remember
the detainees at Guantanamo and all the other similar places.  This Friday
was Good Friday and I decided to crucify myself as a detainee, to try to get a
little attention for those guys, who are mostly forgotten.  

I held my own arms out till they hurt and I couldn't do it anymore.  In
Guantanamo, guards can arbitrarily demand of detainees stress positions that
they need to hold or they'll be beaten, or whatever consequences the person in
charge cares to dream up.  I had the luxury, compared to detainees, to
decide when I couldn't do it anymore.  My shoulders are sore this morning,
but I'm basically fine.  The detainees are not.  

The men being held in the "war on terror" deserve their freedom, the
large majority of them, and the ones that are kept deserve humane, decent
treatment.  

Here is what people saw in Davis Sq, April 22.

Susan McLucas 


(I gave them four pictures of me as the crucified detainee)

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