My Dear Kossacks,
As some of you know, my husband, Dan, was Vietnam vet who, I believe with all my heart, was a POW who was tortured by his North Vietnamese captors.
When he got back to the United States, doctors removed his toenails three times, in an attempt to irradicate the bamboo poisoning from where they had inflicted pain to try to get him to tell them the information he wanted. He never got a full night's sleep and his screams still haunt my nights. On the nights he didn't scream, sometimes he would be speaking Vietnamese, urgently pleading with someone. There was never enough food in the house to fill the psychological hole left by the food deprivation he had suffered. This became an especially large hole when he ended up on dialysis for the last two years of his life.
On June 12th, 2005, Dan had a heart attack and didn't come back, but he left me a legacy to fulfill.
When I see photographs or read news from Guantanamo Bay, or Abu Ghraib, or the dark sites around the world, all I see is my Dan naked and curled in a crumpled ball on the floor of a dirt cell, bloody and bruised and broken, incoherent with hunger and exhausted with sleep deprivation, unable to tell his family or his country where he is.
I cannot let torture be the law, policy and practice of the United States without standing up as strongly as I know how, in Dan's name. It is NOT what Dan fought for! It is NOT what Dan gave his physical health for! It is NOT what Dan gave his mental health for!
As a result of my activities, I have had an honour that leaves me completely humbled:
I will speaking against at Harvard Law School. The presentation is Monday, November 24th, from Noon until 1pm.
It is an overwhelming challenge, but Dan will be giving me the words and be in my heart. If your are in Boston, or in the New England area, you are cordially invited to attend. Please email me (email address is in my profile) and I will send you the specifics, once I learn which room we will be in.
We have an opportunity, with President-Elect Obama, to stop torture as the law, policy and practice of the United States, please, use this opportunity to speak up.
If you do nothing else, for Dan, tell your congressional reprentative and your senators: NOT IN MY NAME !
Thank you helping my voice to grow.
Thank you for helping Dan to have the legacy he should have.
Thank you for helping to stop torture as the law, policy and practice of the United States.