The Dark Side

I've just climbed out of the dark hole I've been living in for the last 10 days. No, I'm not seriously depressed, just incredibly angry, horrified and nauseated. Thank god, I have finally finished reading Jane Mayer's "The Dark Side," 300 some pages that details how the Bush/Cheney administration committed heinous crimes against humanity in the name of national security. Although I had read portions of the book in The New Yorker, the cumulative effect of reading it in book form is horrific. Usually, I knock a 300 page book in two or three days but I couldn't bear to read this for more than a half hour at a time, especially at night, when I like to get a good hour or two of reading in before bedtime. Each chapter outlines in gross detail how our government authorized torture and abuse often against innocent people, committed murder and other evil acts and did so with complete impunity.

I'd like to believe that things are different now with Obama. But the CIA still exists. There are still horrible secrets and filthy goings-on hidden from public exposure. It is all too easy for ideals to be corrupted by power, no matter how beneficently it is wielded. Who knows what form evil will take in this administration? Does that seem melodramatic? I don't think so.