Monday, November 14, 2011
[1765 - Robert Fulton, inventor, born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania]
[1840 - Claude Monet, impressionist painter, born in Paris]
[1889 - Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of India, born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India]
[1900 - Aaron Copland, composer, born in Brooklyn]
[1904 - Dick (Richard E.) Powell, actor, born in Mountain View, Arkansas]
[1908 - Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator, born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin]
[1908 - Harrison Evans Salisbury, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, born in
Minneapolis, Minnesota]
[1919 - Veronica Lake, actress, born in Brooklyn]
[1921 - Brian Keith (Robert Alba Keith), actor, born in Bayonne, New Jersey]
[1927 - McLean Stevenson, actor, born in Normal, Illinois]
All American Citizens should now call upon President Obama to make good on his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which is a symbol of all that is un-American and anathema to a free society. William's petition is as follows, but you, of course, can put it in your words:
Petitioners maintain:
The prison on the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been, and remains a site for indefinite incarceration of numerous individuals of sundry nationalities and origin who have been designated as 'detainees' or 'enemy combatants,' and;
Many of these individual prisoners have been confined under harsh conditions, and some have been subjected to unlawful interrogation in violation of international law; and;
Over half a decade has passed in which the government has had the opportunity and obligation to gather the required evidence and to bring charges against the said detainee enemy combatants for any alleged crime, and;
Many individuals remain confined without being brought to trial for alleged offenses, and;
No declaration of war against any nation, state, or entity has issued from the Congress of the United States of America in this Century, and no state of war currently exists, and;
Torture in any form and indefinite confinement of individuals are contrary to the principles on which the nation was founded which are embodied in the Constitution of the United States of America.
NOW COME the undersigned citizens of the United States of America, and pursuant to the First Amendment to the Constitution do respectfully request that as President of the United States of America you immediately:
CLOSE the prison on the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and;
TRY any and all prisoners held there who have allegedly committed crimes against the United States of America, and;
RELEASE all others held as enemy combatants with appropriate reparations to them and to their families.
William's Whimsical Words:
It would also seem fair that released prisoners should receive one way tickets to any place of their choosing on the planet, and those who because of genuine fear of repercussions cannot find safe haven elsewhere be granted asylum in the USA.
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