A Question for Jay Severin

I’ve mentioned many times that I listen to talk radio a lot during the day as I work. Jay Severin comes on at 3 when I’m starting to wind down a bit so sometimes I can take him and sometimes I can’t depending on how rough my day has been and what he’s going on about. There are, actually, things I like about him. He has excellent elocution and he loves his Reed’s Ferry Shed.... I’m sure I can think of others.

But I was listening to a commercial for his program with a sound bite in it in which he is talking in support of his pro-torture position regarding the Abu Gahrib atrocity. In it he uses the analogy if you were the parent of a child who had been kidnaped and was buried somewhere with only enough air to stay alive for an hour and you had the person who did it, how far would you go in torturing that person to elicit information on where the child was so you could rescue it before it was too late.

Well, that’s a very compelling analogy and, of course, a lot of the pro-torture nuts latched onto it and have repeated it endlessly in discussion groups, chat rooms and bars. It is a bit histrionic since it deals with an absolute situation involving a beloved child but there’s something that is more important in my thinking. There is a difference between an absolute situation and a possible or potential one and anyone who can’t see that isn’t far from being a terrorist themselves.

Severin answers his own question by saying “Torture him. Torture him to death if necessary.” But what if you think the person you have MIGHT know where the child is buried? How far are you willing to go over something the person might know but you can never be sure if they do or not? And what if the person you have isn’t the one who committed the crime? They didn’t kidnap the child, they didn’t bury the child. They know where the child is but they are terrified of the person who did it and fear if they tell they might as well be dead. How far do you torture then?

I guess the reason I was thinking about this is because I am sick and tired of the hysterics that pass for political debate these days. Everything is so overwrought and there is so much hyperbole that it seems many of us have lost sight of basic human nature and basic moral decency. It seems that the ancient Code of Hammurabi, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, has become our national mantra. People quote it like it is a moral imperative.

I’m tired of meanness and hysterics. I’m tired of shock jocks carrying on like the neighborhood fruitcake who is always up on the latest scandal and running around screaming, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling.”

And the sad truth is the sky seems to be getting a little too close for comfort these days. Not because of what is being done to our country from the outside but from what we are doing within. Consumerism is out of control. Our people are dumber, fatter, ruder, and less informed than ever. There is no such thing as news anymore — it is all infotainment. There are no such thing as great thinkers and great leaders — they are all celebrity wannabes. It’s discouraging.

I wish we would take the time to just think about things. I wish people like Severin, who is far from dumb, that have such a huge forum would be more discerning in their ranting. I’m not asking that he change his position or perspective, I’m just asking that he inject some reason instead of shocking extremist hysterics. We need to understand the shades of gray. We need commentary from people who know that.

Thanks for reading.