To: The Syrian Ambassador to the United States of America, His Excellency Imad Moustapha

To: The Syrian Ambassador to the United States of America, His Excellency Imad Moustapha

Your Excellency,

It was with great interest that I read your recent blog post “On Woe and Sorrow or How to Dispel Sadness,” dedicated “to the martyrs of Daraa.”

I would submit for your consideration that avoiding and preventing sorrows is superior to any means of dispelling them.

It is to this end that I urgently implore you to use all means necessary to insure the safe release of the writer Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari.

She wrote this recently:

“We went up north and helped spread sparks, in the cities of the plain and by the banks of the Orontes; we listened and we carried messages. Some were sent beyond this land, others were carried here in turn. And we heard people talking of frustration; we’ve been pushing so long, they said, and they kill us and we just die… Why not take matters in our own hands and let them know? Take up the guns which are buried, uses bombs and make revolutionary justice.

I for one pushed back against that; we want a new Syria, a break from all that’s come before. If we take power by killing and torturing, if we make summary justice and examples of Them, how are we different?”

Please take immediate action to free Amina and all who are detained or imprisoned for their beliefs and expression.

sincerely,

Henry Edward Hardy
Somerville, MA, USA