CPTnet
2 February 2006

CHICAGO REFLECTION: Forty minutes as a detainee

by Lisa Hughes

[Note: Hughes participated with her January training group in a 17 January
2006 public witness that was part of CPT's "Shine the Light" Campaign. (See
24 January release, "CPT trainees "Shine the Light" on Iraqi detainee
abuses, Senator Richard Durbin's voting record.") The campaign included
events throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. ]

We climbed the wet stairs of the subway station right into the federal plaza
in Chicago where our vigil was to take place. Over a week of planning and
the day had finally arrived. Two members of our group were waiting with our
supplies that our training coordinator Kryss Chupp had driven downtown. I
immediately found a crate and began preparing for my role under the giant
flagpole. I donned a black robe, rolled up my sleeves and pant legs and
removed my shoes, stepping on to the cold, wet cement. I put a black veil
over my head and placed a sign saying "Iraqi detainee" around my neck. The
wind was whipping the veil and sign, so other people in my training group
helped me with some safety pins. I then stepped on to the crate where I
would stand silently for the next forty minutes. Andrea Siemens and Sue
Wilkinson, two other CPT trainees,were standing on similar crates around the
flagpole. Almost immediately a small circle of candle bearing mourners
began circling around us, while passersby started to stop and stare.

>From under the veil it was hard to see peoples faces clearly, but the circle
of mourners grew and grew. At one point I felt a wail rising up within me.
Since it was to be a silent vigil, I did not vocalize it, but rather felt it
within me and tried to imagine the anguish of those undergoing abuse and
mistreatment at the hands of U.S. soldiers. War turns sons and daughters,
brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers into torturers and victims of
torture. So many will need to heal from wounds whose depths I cannot even
imagine.

Participating in the January training were Julian Gutierrez (Risaralda,
Columbia),Lisa Hughes (Portland, OR), Gary Novak (Port Townsend, WA), Rod
Orr (Palmyra, MO), Heidi Schramm (Lindenhurst, IL), Sarah Scruggs
(Washington, DC), Andrea Siemens (Toronto, ON), Sue Wilkinson (Chicago, IL),
Marge Zacharias (Detroit, MI), Cathy Breen (New York, NY) and Kathy Kelly