It’s a new year, with all of the promise that each January brings. Let’s make this the year we bring home the rest of those American and other political prisoners who missed out on the swap in August of last year, who have committed no crimes, and who are merely being held hostage by Vladimir Putin for his own diabolical purposes.

Perhaps if the incoming U.S. president will give less thought to the position of the flag on his Inauguration Day, and think instead — unselfishly, for once — about the lives of the people he is supposed to represent, something will actually be accomplished.

It saddens me beyond words to have to face the beginning of yet another year by once more listing their names in my small effort to ensure they are not forgotten. But here they are again:

David Barnes
Gordon Black
Marc Fogle
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Ksenia Karelina
Andrey Kuznechyk (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)

To each and every one of them — and all those whose names are not known to me — I once again wish continued courage, hope, and a one-way ticket home in the months to come.

Godspeed.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/5/25