how to fight totalitarian evil

Do not retreat. Do not withdraw. Speak up. And always, always, always stand up to a bully.***

That’s the lesson learned by Shaul Bakhash, who teaches Middle Eastern history at George Mason University and whose wife, the 67-year-old Persian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, was taken hostage by Iranian thugs and incarcerated at Evin prison in Iran [e.a.]:

Should you wake up one day to find your wife or child or parent in the hands of the secret police in a country that routinely violates the rule of law, you will likely choose quiet probing over publicity. You have no recourse to law or courts. You fear publicity may make things worse. You believe, almost always wrongly, that if you work quietly, use the contacts you have and wait reasonably, the nightmare will be over.

Read the whole thing, spare a thought for Esfandiari, and support political freedom and human rights for oppressed people everywhere. Pressure works.
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*** She’s no totalitarian, of course, but Rosie O’Donnell sure is one hell of a big-mouthed bully. And a righteous Rachel Sklar really let her have it today on ETP. Nice.