Musings: So Disturbing

Hair dripping with salt water, eyes shining from the shimmer of sunlight on sea, heart happy, dogs happy, infused with the good medicine of the beach, we return to the car to find the corpse of a butchered wild pig dumped in the parking lot.

So disturbing, and so disrespectful, of the pig, the aina, other people.

Then I encountered this, from the 2012 annual report of the Corrections Corporation of America — the company that makes its money off human misery, human storage:

"We believe we have been successful in increasing the number of residents in our care and continue to pursue a number of initiatives intended to further increase our occupancy and revenue."

"For instance, any changes with respect to [laws governing] drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them."

"A recent study released by the Pew Charitable Trust indicates that one in every 100 U.S. adults are in prison or in jail. With the U.S. population estimated to grow by more than 18.5 million between 2007 and 2015, about 20,000 prisoners per year will be added to the system over the next seven years if historical trends in incarceration rates continue."

So disturbing, especially when you consider that Hawaii is CCA's number one customer and at least half or more of the prison population from Hawaii is kanaka maoli.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspect in the Boston marathon bombing, is arrested following a house-by-house warrantless search by armed men. The government invokes “a public safety exemption” and refuses to read him his Miranda rights before engaging in “extreme interrogation” by the “High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.” Does that include waterboarding, or some of the other measures that are no longer considered torture as long as we are doing it to them? Meanwhile, some lawmakers and commentators are clamoring to have him treated as an enemy combatant, even though he's a naturalized U.S. citizen, presumably so he can be held indefinitely and tried in a military kangaroo court.

So disturbing, what happens to the Constitution when your government has declared War on Islam Terror. Because aren't we defined as a society by how we treat those who are suspected of committing the most heinous of crimes?

Meanwhile, more civil liberties and privacy are on the block, with the House of Representatives voting last week to approve the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act — a controversial bill that allows private businesses like Facebook and Google and Yahoo to share your personal information with any government entity. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa was one of 92 Democrats who voted for CISPA, which exempts companies from liability when they divulge your private information to whomever they wish.

So disturbing, to see that bill now being justified by events like the Boston bombing. And so disturbing to peruse the list of companies and entities — AT&T, Time Warner, Verizon, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, McAfee and American Bankers Assn., to name a few — that have spent $605 million to lobby against our interests.

And finally, here's a really good, though disturbing, piece on how the American media is fixated on the maiming actions of the homemade Boston bombs, while conveniently forgetting our own devastating use of cluster bombs on civilians in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The article cites George Orwell's references to “doublethink,” which is defined as a willingness “to forget any fact that has become inconvenient.”

So disturbing, to be reminded that it's 1984.