Save the policy for later. Brittney Griner returns home and it’s time to celebrate.
A week ago, she seemed trapped in history, autocratic rule and war. Now he is free. Thank God for this.
Considering the odds and the terrible fate Griner faced, this is a miraculous outcome. She is saved from the Russian gulag that is still in position even 3 decades after the fall of the Soviet empire.
She was, according to former Russian prisoner Nadya Tolokonnikova of the punk band and protest organization Pussy Riot, in Russia’s most damaging women’s prison, IK-2, in the Mordovia region, about three hundred miles east of Moscow. The saying in Russian prisons is: “If you have not served a sentence in Mordovia, you have not served a sentence at all. “
He is known for his brutality and torture, slave labor, filth and rotten food.
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No human being deserves this kind of treatment, and Griner, who posed no risk to the rest of the Russian people or to his country, only a pawn of the Kremlin. It has been a lever for a government that does not hesitate to take hostages rather than invade its neighbors and execute its civilians.
It is the wickedness of this government, the utter evil of what it is to do under Vladimir Putin and their indifference to human suffering, that tells them how fortunate we are that Brittney Griner is back home.
Griner is a world-class athlete who won Olympic gold, an NCAA championship and a WNBA name with the Phoenix Mercury. But he is also a modest user who grew up in difficult circumstances. Her father kicked her out of space because he’s gay, to reconcile with her.
Choose compassion over punishment: A circle of relatives asked the police to assist a boy with an intellectual illness. Instead, he was shot.
This is a user who loves fame or seeks to be the center of attention, his agent told The New Yorker magazine.
“Brittney Griner doesn’t need to be famous,” said Lindsay Colas. He needs to skateboard on the street at dusk with a popsicle of ice cream. “
I suspect she will now be the most powerful advocate for Americans still in Russian prisons. Why? Because he hasn’t forgotten them in his communications at home.
Some Americans don’t need to forgive her for her protests against the flag and national anthem, and think she earned her fate by violating Russian law.
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This does perceive how selective Russian law is. Putin does want an excuse to take an American hostage.
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The Russians imprisoned Griner for possession of small amounts of marijuana a week before invading Ukraine. There were bigger machinations at work.
We can talk about policy and pricing to ensure your release later. For now, let’s savor the moment.
Brittney Griner is American. She is our sister. She is free.
And God is good.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic, where this column was first published. Email them to phil. boas@arizonarepublic. com
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