big days

i've barely had a chance to process all that's gone on in the last 48 hours. yesterday sure was a big news day. the kind that leaves a person feeling utterly depleted, having been tugged in so many emotional directions. the kind that renders you slapped, churned, and spent. like raunchy unscheduled sex, but not really.

a good number of us exhaled a wee bit upon hearing the findings of the arar commission. i guess it's like a sense of collective vindication to finally have some official person, after some officious process, confirm what most people already believed: that maher arar was indeed tortured in syria. i haven't read it, but it does not, however, seem to validate what else we believe: that maher was snatched unjustifiably by u.s. authorities and that canadian authorities truly let him (and the rest of us) down by obtaining and sharing info about him in shady ways to shady officials in washington and wherever else, and by allowing him to languish in a syrian prison ten months and ten days longer than he fucking should have. the so-called fact finder's report is at least one step towards something big and important for maher and his family - and its more than closer. and for those of us who have become attached to maher through working with amnesty or any of the amazing groups battling the monstrous security agenda, this represents a critical moment in the effort to credibly challenge the abandonment of human rights and civil liberties that is now the rule in this suffocating pre-911 context. but i digress.


when harriet miers withdrew from the stupid nomination, i felt a level of glee that someone this distant from any of that just ought not feel. it's as if i myself have been saved from having her sit next to me for the rest of my life reading passages from the old testament and scowling judgmentally at my life choices with her arms folded across the the front of an ill-fitted jacket with shoulder pads. with everything so messy for the republicans, maybe dubya will come up with a nominee with actual credentials. if i were one of his advisors - and let's thank christ i'm not - looking at how dangerously close the gop is to imploding, i'd be pushing for a slightly appeasing nominee, one with fewer affiliations to sickening blatantly right-wing groups like exodus ministries. bye harriet. thanks for walking us through the departure from your fifteen minutes on your blog.


on a less ridiculous note, i wish i had more time to sit quietly with the feelings that washed over me as i took in the special news reports and retrospectives that proliferated the media with the passing of rosa parks. her name still has the power to conjure up waves of humility in even the moderate activist, let alone mainstream observers. for me, the relevance of the american civil rights movement - with all its key players - is not lost on my evolving identity. i think my love-hate relationship with iconography and symbolism and the cult of celebrity is in real-time. but i somehow concede the value of figures dotting the timelines of history. people like ms parks, now frozen into mythological proportions, do provide inspiration. they almost have to be caricature-ized in order to inspire subsequent generations, especially young people. like me. anyways, my feelings are too preliminary and cheesy to describe here now. but i'm sure feeling it.