The pandemic threatens imprisoned dissidents and journalists everywhere. They must be freed.

[Isabella]

PRISONS ARE fecund incubators for coronavirus — people in tight proximity, surfaces easily contaminated, closed internal spaces, poor hygiene and lack of medicines. For those around the world who have been thrown into jails for their beliefs, the pandemic could become a death sentence. Prisoners everywhere must be protected from the virus on humanitarian grounds, and political prisoners ought to be freed now so they do not die for their words and convictions.

In Kyrgyzstan, journalist Azimjon Askarov is ill. Let him go. Iran must release Iranian American businessman Siamak Namazi, held for more than four years in Evin prison. In Russia, the political prisoners include 26 Jehovah’s Witnesses in pretrial detention and eight in penal colonies. They should not face a covid-19 death sentence for their religious beliefs. In Venezuela, the “Citgo 6” have been recently moved from house arrest to prison. They are six oil company executives — five U.S. citizens and one permanent resident — arrested and detained in 2017. They must be released.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-pandemic-threatens-imprisoned-dissidents-and-journalists-everywhere-they-must-be-freed/2020/04/03/87305f0e-7510-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html

[TrueTomHarley]

In the US there is a call for mandatory lockdown. Those who resist that call say What is the point?’ What, are you going to put people that disobey in jail, and thereby make the problems worse? That has happened in NYC. There is not much that can be done unless people voluntarily cooperate. 

Horrible thing for those in prison. Yes, they should be released. Will they be? At least JWs have the knowledge that this life is not the ‘real life’ of 1 Timothy 6. None of us wants to die—death is inconvenient and it makes people feel bad—though death itself is not a cause of fear for those who trust in Bible promises.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

I hope you realize, Isabella, that what You are doing is FULL SCALE POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

... but then again ... so is NOT saying anything.

[TrueTomHarley]

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I hope you realize, Isabella, that what You are doing is FULL SCALE POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

Should I let the blowhard have it, or what? Naw. ‘Tommy, for once in your life, keep your mouth shut.’ He is what he is.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

TTH:

I notice with your snarky comment, that you did NOT refute my premise.

[TrueTomHarley]

7 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

TTH:

I notice with your snarky comment, that you did NOT refute my premise.

I can’t quite get my head around what your ridiculous premise is.

Saying something is ‘political’ and so is not saying something! What sort of a ‘premise’ is that? Even here where bytes are cheap that premise is a waste of them.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

There are good detectives,

and there are bad detectives,

Bad detectives do not actually detect much.

[TrueTomHarley]

51 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

There are good detectives,

and there are bad detectives,

Bad detectives do not actually detect much.

That’s a dumber comment than your preceding one! What does it apply to?

I will allow that I probably overreacted to your initial comment about what is political and what is not. You did not wave the red flag that you usually do—stupid comments about box cars of letters to serve as fuel for the Russians through cold winter nights. I was anticipating yet one more encore of that idiocy and you did not deliver it. My bad.

The Russian brothers always thought it a long shot for harassment to be alleviated by the campaign.  It would be icing on the cake if it had turned out that way. Instead, as it turned out, the consolation prize was every bit as valuable, perhaps even more so, and everyone in the world can see it but you!

It was for the witness! Obviously those government leaders did not read all the letters—they may have not read even one. But they could not have failed to know that they existed. They could not have failed to know that there is one ‘nation’ absolutely unique in the world of nations in which each and every member cares deeply about each and every other. Not only did they learn of it—most of the relevant power players in the world came to know of it—and there is always a chance, however remote, that one night Putin will be unable to sleep, as was Ahasuerus long ago, and he will say, ‘Bring me a packet of those letters from the the Jehovahs—what is it with those people that each and every one would do that way? Last time I went to church, the arch-deacon nearly ran over my feet in the parking lot on his way out.’

It also bound the brotherhood together—hugely important for those who value it. Witnesses the world over felt helpless. They longed for something that they could do, and here was something they could do! They could fortify their Russian brothers, now in the eye of the storm, but not left to weather it thinking that everyone has abandoned them. No, they realize that the hearts of the entire brotherhood are one with them! Who knows how many have been fortified to keep integrity on just that account?—and here you cannot let an opportunity pass to ridicule it!

We are social creatures. It is how Jehovah made us. We are not creatures as Witness and 4Jah would have everyone believe—and in this matter you throw in your lot with them—that say ‘Just Jesus n me!’—that’s enough! When God hands you an additional gift of a worldwide brotherhood, so essential for social beings, you do not reject to it to say, “Nope! No need, thanks. Me n Jesus—that will get me through!”

Nobody knows how things will play out, but one possibility is that it will play out as in that cassette drama of Brother Friend playing Moses. (If any casting ever illustrated the Peter Principle, that was it) One woman in the background—Zenia, I think her name was—was eternally whining and bitching and bellyaching and fault-finding and carrying on—and when she went down at the end into the opened earth,  the surviving Israelites did not say what they might be expected to say: ‘Ding dong, the witch is dead—what a pain in the rear end she was!’ No! They lamented her death because they were chumps—all of God’s people are. And should you ever go down for exactly the parallel reason, I too will not say, ‘Ding dong the witch is dead—what a pain in the rear he was!’ as reasonable people might expect me to say. i, too, will lament. for I, too, am a chump.