THE OBLIGATIONS OF CIVILISATION

Civilisation may seem sometimes not to be worth much. A teen-ager has been arrested in Florida for torturing cats. Not too many years ago Ann Arbor, Michigan had cat-torturers,too: two fraternity boys. Mostly we ignored it. Last week we had a hate killer at the Holocaust Museum--but we always have hate killers in the news, so that isn't much. New Orleans registers almost a murder a day, but we still call it "the Big Easy." For the most part, poor kids attend terrible schools; but we get more upset about potholes than we do about that. Do we notice homelessness? hunger? Of course not; we're busy barbecuing tonight. Our country dropped more bombs on more civilians in Pakistan today--but that happens every day, and we don't care.

What undermines civilisation--makes it worthless, or at least seemingly so--is our we-don't-care attitude as much as it is the violence. Thus, despite the usual news, today is a good day, because of a federal judge in San Francisco.

Judge Jeffrey S. White has ruled against John C. Woo, another judge whose former job was justifying torture for the Bush administration's torture teams. Jose Padilla has sued, arguing that Woo's memoranda justifying torture caused him to be tortured while in U. S. custody.

Judge White cares--about law, about justice, about civilisation. Most of the rest of us don't. What passes for decency in this country is a betrayal of decency that says says "as long as I am happy, everything is okay." It says "don't complain." It says "don't bother me; I want to be happy."

Hoorah for Judge White. We owe him our thanks, for caring. For accepting the responsibility that most of us hide from.

And we owe him our contribution to the cause of civilisation for which he stands. We need to support him publicly, and to demand that Mr. Woo be removed from his judicial position while he faces trial. And if he is convicted, we need to insist that he go to prison. And when he goes, why not let him go to Guantanamo? He knows what it's like there.