The Bush administration is now history but its legacy continues to tear the world apart. Senator Patrick Leahy wants to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commision, modeled after ones in South Africa and Latin America - to probe the potentially criminal actions of this administration but many people are calling for stronger measures to hold these culprits accountable for the pain and destruction they have caused. A couple weeks comedian Bill Maher suggested executing a couple bankers who "poisoned our financial markets with tainted investments" as a warning to other greedy financial captains. A more serious proposal has been offered in an commentary for New American Media by today's Locus Focus guest Roberto Cintli Rodriguez. He says that we need to seek not just truth and reconciliation, but also justice.
Roberto Rodriguez has been writing the syndicated Column of the Americas, distributed by Universal Press Syndicate, since 1994. He began his journalism and writing career at La Gente newspaper at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1972. Since 1990, he has been a senior writer with Black Issues in Higher Education. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, the electronic books: The X in La Raza and Codex Tamanchuan: On Becoming Human. He wrote for several publications, including Lowrider magazine, the Eastside Sun in Los Angeles and La Opinion, the nation's largest Spanish-language daily.
Before becoming syndicated, he also published columns in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and USA Today. In 1984, he wrote Assault With A Deadly Weapon, a book on police brutality. In 1986, he was honored by the California Chicano News Media Association for his defense of the First Amendment, as a result of his triumph in two police brutality trials stemming from a vicious assault by L.A. County Sheriff's officers in 1979. In 1997, Assault With a Deadly Weapon and his book On the Wrong Side of the Law were published under one title: Justice: A Question Of Race (Bilingual Review Press). Dick Fuld, former CEO of Lehman Bros.