Day: January 22, 2009

I just noticed today’s date — January 22nd.

Another “Alive Day” comes along. Two years now, still cancer-free.

It brought about a lot of changes — I now get paranoid about every possible ailment (is that lower back discomfort just a muscle ache? etc.), and a lot of people I thought were “big F” Friends turned out to be “small f”, or not even that (long, ugly story).

Still, though — still here. That’s something.

President Obama just signed executive orders which direct the CIA to shut down its network of “Black Site” secret prisons, orders the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, and prohibits the use of “coercive interrogation methods” (i.e. torture)– requiring that all U.S. interrogations of terror suspects must now conform to the U.S. Army Field Manual (policies derived under the Geneva Conventions).

After signing he said:

“The message we are sending around the world is that the US intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals … We intend to win this fight, and we intend to win it on our terms.”