Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy is calling for a Truth Commission to investigate abuses of the Bush administration, ranging from Abu Ghraib to the fundamental erosion of the rights of the American people to privacy, freedom of speech and the simple right to pursue happiness.
This will serve as an immediate vehicle for transparency. It will shine the light of truth on dark corners of recent American history addressed in no other way. The path of the law to bring those responsible to account will be long, perhaps not even in the lifetimes of those most aggrieved.
This vehicle called for by Sen. Leahy is courageous, humble and sheer genius, for it addresses what is most wrong, immediately: Continuing misinformation, use of spin, smoke and mirrors to mask the grave erosion of our American ideals.
Often what we thought was true turns out to be a different animal altogether, and I think that this may be true in this case, exposing as it will an agenda that is shadowy and as yet undefined.
Not long ago during a protracted absence from my birth family, myths grew that I discovered, to my horror, upon returning for a family medical emergency. I discovered just what rumor and innuendo had wrought in my relationships with them. This was a genuinely painful revelation for everyone involved to come face to face with, and in the end, we failed to find what was true and what was false.
We failed because too much time had passed, time that served to ingrain and cement into "truth" what were the workings of the imagination in reality. Too much time passed to undo the knots of lies that hid the truth. The more time passed, the more the tangled web of smoke and mirrors overlaying the truth cemented into "what really happened." I didn't have a truth commission, though I wish I had, to uncover truth and perhaps agendas that were less than savory or honest.
Illuminating the truth takes courage and strength, a willingness to see and accept that someone doesn't have our best interests at heart, having gone to great lengths to undermine those tenants of life and law that all of us hold most dear.
The immediate aftermath of seeing the truth, the agendas, the messy ugly underside of our struggle for peace, equality and truth in this country and world, is not easy to weather.
It is uncomfortable as we come face to face with ourselves, first, for assuming the innuendo and rumors are true, and realizing we were wrong, and second, to forgive and be forgiven following a complete understanding of what happened. The goal is to learn, heal and move on.
One cannot do this without clearly seeing the truth.
In life, we are always given the choice to accept what someone tells us or to discover the truth for ourselves. Accepting the word of anyone in lieu of our own direct knowledge has only one result: untruth, assumption not based on fact and an erosion of own integrity.
That my family chose to replace communication with their own ideas and interpretations instead of communicating directly to discover what truths were there is sad, but something we all do to a greater or lesser degree in our lives.
Sen. Leahy's Truth Commission will address the complicated fallout of failing to insist on the truth from the beginning, exposing the forces behind misdirection. The commission will give us the chance to see and understand, and move on to healing, better Americans for having had the strength and courage to face our own demons that allowed this happen on our watch.
I urge you to support this effort on Sen. Leahy's part; he is a true American hero.
Allison Teague isa Homerwriter and artist,who still holds her Vermont roots dear.
