Rev. John Anderson: A Tragic Mistake in Iraq

Looking at the pictures coming out of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, we turn away in disgust and, at the same time, stare with fascination, wondering what led to this kind of descent into human depravity. We turn away rather than consider the possibility of our own participation had we been there, following orders, taking on the mindset of the victor, an ambassador of vengeance.

All political parties have told us that this was an un-American activity. Yet, our American history tells another story. We know that it is very American to humiliate those who are in the way of our economic goals. We have readily disgraced those cultures who did not have the same mindset, agenda and habits of this European-American-centered culture. Our devastation of native American peoples is one example. In many areas, their culture has been starved by agonizing poverty or as casino pushers. Again, when our nation enslaved those from other continents, we not only took their freedom, but their traditions, languages and cultural idiosyncrasies.

We have continued to be "American" as we disregard those of the Muslim faith, waiting for them to catch on to the cultural and behavioral mainstream. We are tolerant so long as they strive to be like us.

One Arab journalist recently wrote that, "While Americans wonder why Arab peoples hate us so much, the people of Arab tradition wonder why we hate them so much."

We have engaged in this war in Iraq with a similar approach to others who are different. We have not listened to their traditions, honored their rituals or spoken their language. We do not respect them.

So it is not surprising that we have taken a prison, an imposing symbol of oppression and shame, and used it to continue another setting of shame. We would like to think that the perpetrators are few in number, but they represent us and our historical attitude.

Shaming is an easy way to abuse another. With it we sidestep justice, deliberation and democracy to deliver revenge, intolerance and cruelty to the very core of the other's personal identity. What someone has come to value, through family, faith and practice, is stripped away as irrelevant and vile. When you take that away, you shame them, leaving nothing in its place, providing room only for a desire for rage and death.

I wish we could pass this off as another war story, something contrary to who we are as Americans. We cannot. It is part of us.

There have been some recent incidents of intolerance and dishonoring of our neighbors within our community.

Being members of this neighborhood, we can start here, in our own district, honoring those whose traditions we have yet to understand. We can begin in the Richmond District to break the cycle of systemic shaming that has been our unfortunate history.

John Anderson is co-moderator of the Richmond District Interfaith and Neighborhood Agency Coalition and one of the pastors at St. John's Presbyterian Church, located at 2 Lake St.