Misery, Thy Name is Rumsfeld's Vacation Home

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The reactions testify to the all-around ickiness of a pro-torture, war-mongering Defense Secretary spending his downtime in a physical memorial to this country's darkest, most violent days. But there are deeper conclusions to be drawn, as shown by the astute observations presented the Commonweal Institute's newsletter, Uncommon Denominator. In the piece (a version of which appeared in The Baltimore Sun in August), Ian Finseth, a senior writer at the institute and assistant professor of American literature at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, argues that the problem with Rumsfeld's ownership of this house is not just that it reflects an administration 'whose power is based on intimidation and on the subservience of others,' not just that it demonstrates a reputed lack of concern for African-Americans. Rather, most alarming is that his ownership of the leisure estates reflects 'an attitude toward American history in which legal property rights take precedence over the uncodified right of the people to their shared cultural past.'

Go there >> Talking Points: Ghosts of Mount Misery
Go there too >> Weekends with the President's Men
Go there too >> My Bondage and My Freedom

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