MB Civic

By Edwidge Danticat | Monday, September 25, 2006 | The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/22/AR2006092201304.html

Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat is the author of “The Dew Breaker”. In this stirring piece, she describes not just the horrors of torture, but also its lasting effects on the lives of both those who were tortured and the torturers themselves. The central idea is that “When seemingly noble ideals — after all, what can be nobler than wanting to save lives? — lead us to torture, the path to the torture chamber can find its way to our front door….” At one point she quotes Aldous Huxley:

“The people who kill and torture and tell lies in the name of their sacred causes . . . these are never the publicans and the sinners. No, they’re the virtuous, respectable men, who have the finest feelings, the best brains, the noblest ideals.”

…Lovely, rational, haunting piece…BS