We must not cede the power to witness what is happening to us, to know how we are seen, to oversee our representation. Without that freedom, we must recognize ourselves in the awful words spoken by the despairing family of one Iraqi man who has disappeared into US custody: “It’s because they have absolute force. No one sees what they do.”

–Patricia J. Williams, “To See or Not to See,” The Nation, June 28, 2004