One can only observe the dynamics of staying home alone for just so long, unless
one is truly solipsist; I predict I'll fall back onto that subject again in the
very near future. Nonetheless, I think it's time to turn outward, for a change.
I'm troubled by this Quaker girl being held in Genoa on charges of
conspiracy to commit devastation and looting. For some reason, this one bothers me
more than the case of the Fulbright scholar just released from Russia, who was
charged with espionage. Maybe it's because I can believe he was possessing or
dealing marijuana -- not that I believe that should be a major crime, but dealing
in a foreign country is a major act of stupidity, which should be charged as at
least a misdemeanor in itself. Maybe it's that the spying charges seemed so
ludicrous that I was sure he would be released.
In Susanna Thomas's
case, no evidence has yet been published that indicates her guilt, or even that of
the theater group with whom she was traveling. All the character evidence, the
details of her conversations, and those of her studies, points toward
her.
The thing the most convinces me, though, is that she's a Quaker,
a member of the Society of Friends. I don't know a whole lot about the Friends,
but from what knowledge has rubbed off in half a lifetime in Philadelphia, I have
quite a lot of respect for their beliefs. I know this is no guarantee; Richard
Nixon is the prime example of a Quaker run amok. On the other hand, the Friends
are still ashamed of him, because he was proven to be a liar. I have yet to hear
of a Baptist embarrassed by our current President.
People follow
various denominations for a lot of reasons, but there are few reasons to join the
Friends other than espousal of their beliefs. No disrespect intended to other
faiths, but people do sometimes join them for reasons that aren't entirely pure.
But the Friends don't exemplify worldly success, as Episcopalians has sometimes
done; they don't offer absolute certainties, like Catholics, or family-feeling,
like Jews, or a chance to lose oneself in a fervent group, like Baptists. Most
difficult of all, they make you think for yourself; the essence of Quaker belief
is following "the light within".
Sue Thomas, by all accounts,
believed in the religion in which she was raised. she was young enough to still be
an idealist. She based her life around nonviolence. One of her main goals while in
Europe was to study, on behalf of her Meeting back home, European examples of
nonviolent civil disobedience. This is why she and her group were in Genoa at that
time.
I believe in Susanna Thomas's innocence. I hope she gets
released, not into house arrest in a convent or via deportation to the US, but as
a woman judged innocent, set free with no stain on her character. And I hope she
is able to maintain her idealism no matter what happens.