Letters: Trapped by Gitmo

Re “Guantanamo’s shame,” Opinion, July 7

It’s our shame, not just Guantanamo’s shame.

We are all complicit in this shame, for how we treat others says more about each of us than it does about the ones who are the cause of our hatred. It’s way past time for this place of shame to be closed, allowing all of us, including those incarcerated, to move on.

The shame of Guantanamo will follow us for all of our lives, like the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and how we have treated Native Americans.

Will apologies and atonement be part of the history of Guantanamo? I hope so. Otherwise, our history has stains that no bleach can erase.

Beverly Franco

Monterey Park

President Obama’s remarks about the “unacceptable” force-feeding of prisoners on a hunger strike is nothing but empty rhetoric that diminishes our image in the world. These inmates have chosen to starve, knowing full well we would never allow them to die in our prisons as a result.

Yet when the detainees at Gitmo are force-fed, there’s the usual bleeding-heart hue and cry about the violation of medical ethics. Would allowing the protesters to die of hunger be less of a violation? Are we to employ psychologists to decide what motives lie behind each striking prisoner?

Those still detained at Guantanamo Bay are dangerous. They are less desperate than they are deceitful.

The idea of closing Guantanamo has always been largely symbolic. So too is the hunger strike of those who remain there.

Doris O’Brien

Pasadena

Force-feeding is another way America tortures.

The majority of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have never been tried, convicted or even charged with any crime. More than half of them have been cleared for release or transfer for years. Obama keeps promising to close Guantanamo, but nothing changes for those prisoners. They are still held captive and are so desperate, they are willing to starve themselves to death.

The torture of force-feeding must end, not by allowing the prisoners to starve but by making good on the promise to transfer or release detainees and close Guantanamo.

People of faith must stand with those prisoners and make sure our government knows that the whole world is watching what is happening at Guantanamo.

The Rev. Jerry Stinson

Long Beach

ALSO:

Letters: Autism gap will cost us all

Letters: A better way for police to treat dogs

Letters: Californians are taxed enough already