So I have decided to create some photographic works in which people pose like the photos of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. I plan on doing it this evening with friends. In the meantime, I have to locate a leash, a hood and some other supplies. Until then, I'm just going to work on my cheesy grin.
I know what you're thinking: Jeffrey, your grin is cheesy enough. Why practice? Or maybe you're thinking: What?! You must be some kind of sicko to think about recreating these horrific photos. What's up with that?
Well, I'll tell you what. The only way for me to counteract this horrible thing is through comedy. I have to make fun... That's the only way I can triumph over it. I have spent the past few days in utter horror. I have not been able to fathom what on earth these prison guards were thinking. I mean, how could they treat human beings like that? I know that there have been studies on cruelty. I know that scientific study isn't really required, based on anecdotal evidence (i.e. mankind's history of atrocity and violence). But it just doesn't wash with me that the whole mission motto was "hearts and minds" and that's the first things you lose when you perpetrate this kind of injustice.
Oklahoma is NOT okay. That much is clear, with Senator James Inhofe's comment that he was "outraged about the outrage." I would love to see that jerk witness his family tortured and humiliated like that. "How you like it now, bitch?" That will be the question I will ask of him after I show him his wife is hog-tied and stacked shoulder-high in a love-pile while I'm mugging for the camera. We'll see how angry you are at "humanitarian do-gooders" then! (And since when do American politicians sneer at being a "humanitarian?" Oh yeah, that's right... since 1990.)