The new film encourages reflection on one of America’s darkest moments
Sandra Strauss
4:45 AM
As far back as I can remember, the bedrock principle that shaped my faith is the command to love God and love my neighbor — my neighbor being anyone anywhere in the world. We are called to love our neighbors, even if we don’t like them or know them. We are also called to treat them with respect, as we wish to be treated — a principle known as the Golden Rule, shared across faith traditions and by people of good will.
That being the case, why do we live in a world where torture exists and has been used even by our own country against those we label as our enemies? And if using torture is considered to be a good and beneficial thing, why did the Central Intelligence Agency work so hard to keep us from learning the truth about a brutal campaign designed to create terror and inflict excruciating pain on its victims — a campaign that also failed to elicit useful information?
We now have the opportunity to learn more about this failed program with the release of “The Report” on Amazon last week. “The Report” is a new political drama depicting how Daniel Jones (portrayed by Adam Driver), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (portrayed by Annette Bening) and the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee courageously unearthed the truth about a program that the CIA tried desperately to hide. It’s also a reminder that despite rhetoric to the contrary, there are faithful public servants who put their lives and their jobs on the line to do the right thing — in this case, by alerting us to a program that is abhorrent to millions who truly believe we have a responsibility to our neighbors that we are called to love. The committee’s staff received threats but persisted in revealing the truth.
Trailer:
Leave a Reply