Bring me my Balaclava!

Dear Mr. President,

Pussy Riot. Intentional provocation right there in the name. These women are a danger to society, the judge said, and she’s right. Profane songs! Feminism! Anti-Putinism! On the altar of the church, a holy sanctuary! What outrage! What desecration! Is nothing sacred? Are even sanctuaries no longer off-limits? A dangerous precedent, these riotgrrrls. If they get away with this, next thing you know there’ll be an Occupy encampment in Red Square, demands for honest elections, separation of church and state, social reforms, maybe even free healthcare for all (like they had under communism until 1991 when they switched to something like Obamacare and life expectancy decreased by 10 years and health deteriorated on every measure). But really, what’s with these protestors anyway? Don’t they realize they’ll get arrested? Is that what they want? 15 minutes of fame? Apparently these Pussy Rioters weren’t making it musically so they needed a publicity stunt. But Putin and his buddy, that Kirill I guy, head of the Orthodox Church, decided to crack down and arrested them, tossed them in jail where they’ve been the past 5 months and now they’re in for 2 years. Of course, it’s all relative. They didn’t have it nearly as bad as Bradley Manning. He’s been in military prisons for 2 years without trial, his pretrial hearings just started a few months ago and it’s clear he’s going to be tried by a kangaroo court too. They’ve suppressed exculpatory evidence, refused to allow key defense witnesses to testify, and piled on one trumped up charge after another including aiding and abetting the enemy which carries a life sentence. Just because he exposed war crimes and political treachery and refused to implicate Julian Assange who you successfully hounded into silence anyway. (Are your government hackers the ones who’ve been attacking the WikiLeaks web site for weeks?) And now your lapdog Brits are threatening to invade the Ecuadorean embassy in London (another violation of sanctuary) and render him through Sweden to the U.S. so you can put him away for life too. No doubt in the cell right next to Manning. What is it about transparency and truth that so terrifies rulers like Putin and Assad and Mubarak… and you, Mr. President? The truth shall set you free, it says in the Bible. Well, all I can say to that is, not under false prophets or dictators. Maybe it’s time we all donned balaclavas, hit the streets and started our own Pussy Riots. Bring me my balaclava!

 

Members of the all-girl punk band "Pussy Riot" Ekaterina Samutsevich (L), Maria Alyokhina (C) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (R) sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow on Agust 17, 2012.(AFP Photo / Natalia Kolesnikova)