Just so you know...I've had a couple of extra days off from school, which simply means I've had a greater opportunity to delve into the dark side.  Instead of narrating the past four days, I'll just list the highlights and then I'll get to my point. 

 

I watched "Winter's Bone" twice--originally just because the trailer was compelling and my perpetual interest in strong female characters drove me to it.  But the story's impact has gone far deeper than that, not the least of which is that it's set in the Ozarks, very similar in feel to my own mountain roots in the Appalachia.  It was like going home for a couple of hours.  Disturbing.  (I highly recommend the film)

 

Then I watched "The Stoning of Soraya M." which I have put off watching for almost two years...but it kept popping up on netflix with a 4.2 stars "best guess for Kimba" rating.  And the character who is burdened with telling the story is played by a favorite character actress Shohreh Aghdashloo.  I recommend this film also, but it's not for sissies, and yet the ending is powerful and full of the kind of compelling hope I can't describe, only recommend you see it.  Watching this film sent me on an odyssey to learn more about stoning as a practice still going on in the world today.  I searched NYT and hit 4,230 articles on the subject.  My stomach hurts.

 

The article at the top of the list mentioned the woman in Iran accused of adultery and attempted murder, Sakineh Ashtiani, who, as far as I can tell, is still awaiting execution (the article is dated November 2).  

 

Somewhere in the article, clicking for more information linked me to Amnesty International and it turns out that December 4-12 is the write-a-thon letter writing campaign to put pressure on international governments to release prisoners like Sakineh Ashtiani, journalists, prisoners of conscience, and others who are imprisoned as a result of governments' international human rights violations. 

 

Words have power.  I've committed to writing 8 letters.  I am turning this into a class project for my international baccalaureate students to give them an opportunity to write a persuasive "paper" with direct relevance in their world today. 

 

And I am compelled to tell you about all this because I believe it is a real and tangible way we can make an actual difference in someone else's life.  It's just a letter.  It's just a few words.  It's just 98 cents for an international postage stamp.  It's just your voice and my voice harmonizing with other voices that will reach a pitch to shatter the glass prison of injustice and free an individual who lives and moves at the mercy of powerful and often corrupt governments---including our own.  

 

First thing I did this morning was read the headlines of the NYT which announced the release from house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (which I'm sure we've all watched off and on for years---highly public case), an exciting article continuing to be updated as to the particulars at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/world/asia/15myanmar.html?hp and later when I was looking through the individual cases on the Amnesty site, she is among the top 8 on whose behalf letters may be written.

 

Anyway...by now you know that my point is to invite you to consider writing a letter on behalf of one of these people who need our voice, our words, to help shift their fate from certain death to freedom and life.