Condemning torture.

• Author: Sleffel, Linda
• Position: Letters to the Editor - Letter to the editor

Thank you for the "No Impunity" editorial, and thank you for your unwavering condemnation of torture and support for civil liberties (Comment, by Matthew Rothschild, June issue).

I have one suggestion: Let's stop using the Orwellian-Bushian euphemisms "detainee" and "detention." High school students kept after school for misbehavior are in detention. You might be detained for a few minutes at a sobriety checkpoint. The men who are locked up in cells under armed guard at Guantánamo, Bagram, and other vile holes around the world are imprisoned; they are prisoners.

We all know that out language both reflects and shapes our thinking. I hope that calling ugly things by their true names will help us recover our civilization a bit sooner.

Thanks again for sticking to American constitutional principles.

Linda Sleffel

Columbus, Ohio

We cannot sweep torture under the rug even though President Obama has said, "At a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past." On this issue, he is terribly wrong. It...