Jose Padilla, a U. S. citizen arrested in May of 2002 on suspiscion of planning a "dirty bomb" explosion, has finally been indicted.
I would like to congratulate the Department of Justice and the Bush administration for their love of justice. Padilla has only been under military arrest for three years without being charged of a crime. Bringing Padilla into the civilian courts this quickly truly demonstrates how highly America holds freedom and justice. After all, we could have left him there forever!
Interestingly, Padilla is not even being charged with the original allegation against him. He is instead accused of conspiring with others to harm people in foreign countries and of providing support to terrorists.
I guess it is a good thing for Padilla that the Department of Justice says in its press release of the indictment that "all defendants are presumed innocent."
In the words of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (also in the press release), "Through the use of such tools, including vital provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, we are able to bring criminal prosecutions that strike at the heart of terrorist activities." With this indictment, Americans can truly know what that means.
I have a lot of things I could say. I have enough specific rants to fill every day since my last post. However, I have held my tongue (or, I guess, fingers).
My reason is simple. I don't want to name names, and almost every single item I feel like talking about requires me to name names. After all, most people who read this would be able to recognize most of the people I would rant about here. The people involved range from my roommates, my friends at LETU, my friends outside of LETU, and random people in various classes. I guess one could say that I am generally annoyed by a lot of things that a lot of people do. What makes this worse is that, generally, I am annoyed by rather unimportant things. I am getting rather aggravated, and I have no good reason to be angry.
I have other things about which I plan to write. I am trying to solidify my political stance on drug-related issues, and I will probably share it once I have it. Until then (or until I am inspired by something else), I will just continue to keep quiet.
Yesterday, the fifth of November, was my sister's birthday.
I do not think I would have remembered this at all had my mother not called and reminded me last night.
I remember shortly after my sister's death that I was afraid of eventually going an entire day without thinking of her. Now, I can't even remember her on her birthday.
Happy belated birthday, Jessica. I miss you.