I am heartbroken. Journalists for Al Gore’s Current TV, Euna Lee and Laura Ling were just sentenced to 12 years of hard labor on charges of illegally crossing the North Korean border. The story is an international headline. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says, “ They have just become prize chips in what [he] calls a ‘high-stakes poker game’ between the United States and North Korea”. President Obama is considering sending former Vice President Al Gore to North Korea to negotiate the release of two American journalists from Current TV, Reuters reports. To most people, this an account filled with political intrigue. To me, I am sickened for my dear friend Euna, her husband and her 4-year old daughter.
I scour the many news articles written about Euna’s plight. Most say the sentence, which is outlandishly unfit for the charge, was clearly politically motivated.Then I read what I fear the most in the SF Gate: The two women may be sent to a kyo-hwa-so reformatory that's the equivalent of a felony penitentiary here. Worse, actually. Torture is permitted at these facilities,and the death rates from malnutrition and disease are staggering. I can hardly believe it, but cannot stop from thinking of anything else.
I first met Euna years ago when she edited my bellydance DVDs, The Goddess Workout. For anyone who has experienced the editing process, it is very time intensive. I was with her as she put her daughter Hannah to bed and we worked until the wee hours of the night chatting about our pasts, our dreams for the future and everything under the sun, moon and stars.I admired her creativity, work ethic and silly humor. We got to know each other quickly and became instant friends. She believed in the GoddessLife philosophy and donated her time to create my webisodes, the videos on my website’s homepage and my press clips.
I could write endlessly about Euna’s virtues and my memories of her that have now become mawkish, but I will stop myself. Euna is part of the GoddessLife community; she is one of us. Please sign this petition to free Euna Lee and Laura Ling http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-euna-and-lauraThe goal is for 50,000 signatures. As I write this now, it is at 41,100.
Below is a clip from The Goddess Workout Burlesque DVD that Euna edited. Euna is a Goddess. Pass it on.
Posted on
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
by Ms. Dolphina