Thursday, June 29, 2006

No comment...

For reasons too boring to go into I was doing a quick bit of research on Magna Carta. Salisbury Cathedral has a copy and on their website I came across this paragraph. I was struck by the last two sentences, having just been reading about 'rendition', Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib et al:

"Magna Carta is Latin for “The Great Charter” the famous agreement made between King John and his barons at Runneymede in 1215. It is beautifully written in Latin on vellum (animal skin) and contains some 3,500 words, many of which have been abbreviated. It established, amongst other principles in law, that no free man may be imprisoned or prosecuted without fair trail before his equals. The basic principles of the Magna Carta have been incorporated into the Constitution of the United States of America."

2 comments:

trailingspouse said...

Exactly. I think what sticks in so many people's craw is all this talk of "freedom", "democracy" and "liberty" when Guantanamo et al is such a glaring example of the exact opposite of these principles.

However I do feel sorry for all the Americans who do not support Bush's policies. At the moment not only are all Americans being tarred with the same brush by the rest of the world, they are also considered akin to traitors in their own country. So much for "The land of the free. . ."

Seabee said...

Hypocrisy. That's been the underlying real problem for decades. Say one thing, do the opposite. Different standards for the US & its friends than those demanded of others, etc etc etc

However I do feel sorry for all the Americans who do not support Bush's policies
Research is showing that around the world attitudes are rapidly changing from differentiating between government policy & the people. Now the American people are increasingly being equated with their government.