You! Yes, YOU! Help Bring an American Home From Iran
(Originally posted at SaltyEggs.com. Link: http://saltyeggs.com/danation-you-yes-you-help-bring-an-american-home-from-iran/ )
Look, I don’t ask much of you, America. And I certainly don’t have a whole lot of faith in our nation’s government to do the right thing anymore. The administration and Congress can’t seem to get their act together on some of the most basic functions of governance, much less sticky, contentious problems like gun control and immigration reform. But when the chips are down, I think our government — any government, really — ought to be able to look out for its citizens when those citizens need it most. When journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were held in North Korea, President Bill Clinton himself went in to bring them home. When three hikers were held by the Iranian government, we brought them home, too. And yet, Bob Levinson has been held, probably by the Iranian government, since 2007, and there he remains. It is a national embarrassment.
Maybe you’re familiar with the petition process the White House has started at its We the People website. You may have heard of it because recent petitions by people in several states to secede from the union (all former Confederate states, it should be noted) have gained the required 25,000 online signatures, and drew a response from the White House on the subject. Or maybe you heard of it because a petition calling for the United States to build a Death Star battle station gained the required amount of signatures, eliciting an admittedly hilarious response from the White House.
The Levinson family has its own petition. They want their dad to come home. It’s been six years, and they just want their dad to come home.
And with just two days left, that petition has only half the required 25,000 signatures needed to be addressed by the White House.
This isn’t just about the government’s lack of response anymore. This is about yours. How can we live in a country where moronic petitions like building a goddamn Death Star get addressed by the White House, but a petition to make bringing Bob Levinson home a national priority wallows in obscurity? Talk about a national embarrassment.
Here is the petition:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-rescuing-us-citizen-robert-levinson-being-held-hostage-middle-east-2007-top-priority/GyK0KhgS
If you can take two minutes from your day — tear yourself away from the cat photos and Tosh.0 videos for a sec — please sign it. It’s not just a petition to bring Bob Levinson home. It’s a petition to restore a little of my own faith in the decency of Americans. Help me out.