Abuse

So, I check my e-mail yesterday, and I get this thing, time/date stamped 9/26 at 12:50 a.m.

Dear Roger Green,
Thousands of bloggers from around the world are joining together this Thursday, September 27th with a single message: Stop Abuse!

BlogCatalog would love for you to be one of them!

On Thursday, September 27th, post about any abuse topic you care about - child abuse, domestic abuse, animal abuse, drug abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, political abuse - and let the world know you stand united with thousands of bloggers as part of the Bloggers Unite "Blog Against Abuse" campaign. Depending on your topic, you can even link to local, regional, national, or international organizations that you care about or support. Every post will count!

Badges & Banners
We have dozens of badges you can add to your post (or make your own):
http://www.blogcatalog.com/group/bloggers-unite/discuss/entry/badges-for-blogging-against-abuse-place-them-on-your-blog

Well, that's swell. I wish i had heard about it earlier. If I had had more time, I might have come up with something more cogent, but given the time limitation:
I OPPOSE ABUSE OF ALL KINDS

OK, I feel better.

Well, there is one thing:

It seems as though when Americans complain about abuse taking place in the United States, they're told, essentially, to shut up. "It's worse in Country X and Country Y." Perhaps true; indeed undoubtedly true. But this point is largely irrelevant to me, for the difference between abuse perpetrated in a foreign land and abuse produced by an entity of the government of the United States is that the latter is DONE IN MY NAME, so it particularly ticks me off.

By abuse, I mean everything from the waterboarding we're apparently not doing (any more) to excessive force by certain police departments to attempts to execute people without exhausting available DNA evidence. (Yeah, I oppose the death penalty generally, but these particular cases really raise my hackles.) So as our President Calls on the United Nations to Enforce Human Rights, here's hoping we make sure we clean up our own house as well.
ROG