As activist movements spread and grow in strength, so does the government’s repressive reaction to them. Political prisoners are not new to the United States, but recent times have seen an unprecedented and growing crackdown on whistle blowers, online activists, even on journalists and lawyers. On Firedoglake, I wrote about Operation Valentine (#OpValentine), an effort to brighten the lives of prisoners through correspondence and mutual aid:
alentine’s Day: some people love the romance, others decry it as an obligatory expression of love or lament the misery of being single on a day devoted to coupledom. If being single on February 14 seems unbearable, imagine if you were not just alone but locked away from everything — your family, your friends, the outside world.
Such is the plight of our nation’s political prisoners. Some, like Leonard Peltier, have spent decades behind bars. Others, like the NATO 5 are victims of a new wave of political repression.
Valentine’s Day is gone by for another year, but they still need to hear from people in the outside world. In fact, Operation Valentine has become Operation PenPal (#OpPenPal). It’s never too late to send your revolutionary love to a political prisoner!
Second Life mailbox by Porcelet GossipGirl. Image by Torley Olmstead released under a Creativce Commons Share Alike license.
