The support that I have received during my years in prison have bolstered my strength and increased my faith in and admiration for my community. Letters and books and news from the broad-based and diverse parts of the movement have kept my spirit and my mind alive, made me feel connected to the world even in this state of physical isolation.
And because I am so mindful of what a gift this support is, it has been even more painful to bear witness to the extreme isolation of the Guantanamo detainees, and to share their despair at the betrayal of promises made to them. As they fade from the public’s focus, as there are always newer and stranger things to capture the public’s eye- I want us to be better than that. We need to add our voices to the ones who are force feeding the hunger strikers (read an article about it, that’s supposed to be a feeding tube and a beaker in the left hand corner…)- so perhaps they will not die. But I know they suffer; I know they feel pain and anguish…