Book Club Engages Activists

Citizens for Global Solutions recently launched its first online book club.  Closely linked with our organization’s End Torture Campaign, this new outreach initiative allowed some of our most engaged activists to participate in a discussion about U.S. interrogation policy and torture as practiced under the Bush administration.

The subject of our discussion was the book “American Torture,” by New York-based author Michael Otterman. Otterman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist. He currently serves as Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia.

His book is an eye-opening account of how the CIA has developed and refined its policy of “coercive interrogation” from the end of World War II until the present day. The book is meticulously researched and deeply instructive. It details how these various interrogation practices have been crudely perfected at huge cost to human life and dignity, while being totally approved by the U.S. government.

While we are taught to believe the fabled axiom that there is traditionally a line drawn between the good guys and the bad, “American Torture” blurs the line and muddies the waters between these two polar opposites. Otterman commandingly demonstrates how the Bush administration’s modern torture policies have severely damaged our nation’s reputation and ability to lead responsibly.

For the book club, we created an online forum on our “Connecting Global to Local” website. This allowed registrants to login and create a profile, in order to discuss the book with other participants. The forum was specifically designed to facilitate a dynamic online conversation between users. It allowed registrants to post comments, ask questions and on a more intrinsic level enabled them to network with likeminded individuals.

The online book club served as the initial component in an ambitious effort to take Citizens for Global Solutions’ vision and mission to a broader audience. To bolster our online efforts, we coordinated a book tour with Otterman in mid-September, targeting three specific cities – Albuquerque, Santa Fe and San Diego.

The tour was full, with multiple events held over the course of a week. They were held at a variety of venues, including the University of New Mexico School of Law and Webster University in Albuquerque. There were also back-to-back events at the College of Santa Fe and Collected Works Bookstore, which has been voted the best bookstore in New Mexico.

While the online book club created an initial buzz around “American Torture,” the tour through New Mexico and southern California offered an exciting opportunity for Citizens for Global Solutions to take to the road with a published author and engage in some good old fashioned grassroots outreach.  Furthermore, by engaging local communities around the issue of torture and rendition, we have been able to connect our vision and mission to new audiences while engaging our long-term supporters in the region.