THERE IS A MAN UNDER THAT HOOD

Luke Nephew, January 2011

We are not here to make angels out of prisoners.

We don’t know them. But we know that they are men…

And so we defend those who disappear under hoods and into jumpsuits,

Bringing back into the light every CIA black cite, because right now…

There is a man under that hood

There is a brother breathing prayers of desperation,

Striking hunger so hard that his ribs are about to crack,

There is a man under that hood in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and Iraq

That is being treated as less than human…

His rights have been dismissed with the label terrorist

And just for saying this, they’ll probably put my name on a list

But this is too dangerous for us to not resist…

Mr. President, I want you to know, that if it were you hooded and chained

We would be standing right here, demanding the same- basic human rights for you…

If it were you facing indefinite detention Mr. Senator,

We would march in these streets with your name on our backs

We would fast

In solidarity with your hunger strike, Mrs. Congresswoman

Even while months of breathing through black cloth made you cough

We would speak for you

Mr. Newsman, Mrs. Citizen, we would be here for you

Because no matter how hollowed out the night

We remember that human rights are universal,

This is life, not a rehearsal!

You cannot steal years of men’s lives based on lies extracted from torture and

bribes,



We cannot decide who is human and who is not

Without becoming the greatest threat to ourselves

I have sat inside a cell, and it taught me how wrong it is to cage men

And then say it’s all right to keep them…

Because they fell like corpses into the category of ‘enemy combatants’

I will not act like nothing happened when it’s happening now

I will not bow to this injustice.

I will speak for the change that was promised,

I’m not ashamed to be honest: And tell you:

We have all cried, Mr. President,

Clouds of consciousness overflowing out our eyes, Mr. President…

For those brief seconds when we’ve had the courage to realize

That there is a man under that hood,

No matter how beaten and bruised

There is a man under that hood

That is exactly as human as you

There is a man under that hood

Regardless of his religion,

There is a man

Who doesn’t understand, why we don’t see him…

Why it’s so hard for us to imagine what it would be like to be him…

There

Where they sit in our prisons, hidden from our justice system, locked away,

Are we going to pretend that they are less than men and just walk away?

Or will we raise our eyes above the walls,

Raise our voices up to call out our government,

To say we see you, we are watching what you’re doin’,

No matter how many times you call them terrorists,

We’ll still recognize them as human

And to the detainees,

No matter how tortured or shattered or forgotten you feel

Please know that there are people in these United States,

Who see you and hear you and know that you are real

And to the people of my country,

Do not pretend we are seeking freedom,

Or justice, or any common good,

Until we are ready

To respect the human rights

Of every

Single

Man…

under that hood