Hopefully, the Times Union's use of alliteration ("Court order for 4 force-feedings," July 18) in the front-page headline helped draw readers into the article focusing on the force-feeding form of torture employed by New York's correction authorities.
I was glad to see the report also called attention to the hunger strikers at the American prison on Guantanamo. Those 46 prisoners are not — according to Pentagon lawyers — striking primarily over "the conditions of their confinement." Their refusal to eat is an act of desperation, a cry of despair. These are men we've never convicted of a crime yet have held captive for nine, 10, 11 or 12 years. Most are men who have suffered cruel and degrading treatment at our hands, men cleared for release years ago but still imprisoned in Guantanamo's cages.
What should make the front page of every American newspaper are these men's stories, the shame of what our government has been doing to them and the lack of meaningful action by the president or Congress to free the 86 who have been cleared for release, and then free or bring to trial the others. Until that day, "Old Glory" might more appropriately be referred to as "New Shame."
Paul Rehm
Greenville