Even though we’ve been reporting about Obama’s shutting down of Guantanamo here on TakePart and I originally reported back in November about Obama’s plans to shut the prison down, it is worth noting that is going to take longer than originally thought.  Back in November it seemed as though things were going to start much sooner and that getting rid of Guantanamo was a priority - but now some folks are worried that it might not be so, as Obama made remarks on Monday about the difficulty of such a task.

The president-elect drew criticism from some human rights groups Monday who said his remarks suggested that closing Guantánamo was not among the new administration’s highest priorities. But even if the detention camp remains open for months, the decision to address Guantánamo on the day after his inauguration seemed intended to make a symbolic break with some of the most controversial policies of the Bush administration.

And while the symbolic gesture is an important one, my fear with the new administration is that all we are going to get from them are symbolic gestures.   The transition of course won’t be easy and 8 years of bad policy can’t be undone quickly but it’s important that we don’t spend the next four years simply talking about how they could change and actually doing something.

takepart to read up on Human Rights Watch’s take on Guantanamo and go HERE to watch a clip from Barack Obama’s appearance on This Week.

Also keep up with our inauguration coverage HERE.

*photo from KCIvey’s flickr account (creative commons)