# 42

 If you do not recognize that number and its significance, then let me enlighten you. We are all of us #42. Perhaps it resonates a bit more with me because that was my son's number on his basketball team, but in fact, this number, #42, should be etched in your heart, for we are all #42. Until the owner of that number is free and clear, home safe, we are all #42. 

Folks, beware the dangerous situation in which this #42 has become so thoroughly enmeshed. Though we are physically not there with #42, we certainly should feel the pain, the agony, the total bewilderment of a life gone to rack and ruin. Yet another pawn in a world twisted and turned by crazed megalomaniacs such as Putin, enabled by a USA weakened, belittled via the years of Trump.

Brittney Griner is a professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA. At 6'9" she is a powerhouse of energy and skill, and usually has a bright face and an even brighter smile. Going to Russia to play offseason basketball, as the women are extremely underpaid, especially when compared to the NBA, she was caught up in a world political situation, chewed up by the politics of nations.

Arrested on a trumped-up charge, convicted of "drug" smuggling - cannabis oil legal in the USA, prescribed by a doctor - locked up in a cramped cell with no shared language, for about 170 days. Almost six months. Placed on show, handcuffed, pulled along by guards holding her handcuffed arms, like an animal, she pled guilty, apologized, all on advice of counsel, and pleaded with the court to not "end her life". Then they went ahead and did just that and worsened it all by sentencing her to nine years in a penal camp, a surviving gulag remnant far away, possibly Siberia, with very little contact available with friends, lawyers, hope! The place is inhumane, harsh, certainly morally illegal in its inhumane treatment of poor souls condemned to die, hard, for there is very little hope of survival, particularly in this case.

Putin is angry with the world, especially America. We organized a defense of sorts, though inadequate, for Ukraine, being destroyed by the invading Russian forces along with mercenaries in the pay of Russia. They needed an advantage point, a puppet to force concessions out of America, to humiliate it in its powerlessness, and caught there in that net is Brittney. Caught there through politics, a dirty game indeed.

Not feeling the rage, the roaring in your head at the manifest bloody unfairness of it all? Tsk, tsk and on you move to the sale pages of the papers or the treasure chest of Amazon? Now put it down, shut the app and turn to recent photos of Brittney. Caged, handcuffed, pulled along like a dangerous critter, locked in cages all day, driven for two hours each way for days in court, in a confinement too small for her. Look, look long, hard, at her face, her body language. There is a bewilderment of the eyes, a dulling of their natural shine. There is a pale, ashen face, confused, frightened, longing to go home, a face wet with tears as she pleaded with the court - and then they did it all to her anyway, in the harshest manner possible. 

Why? Because she is an American, a dangerous thing to be these days, overwhelmingly so in hostile countries, in lands where the law is a terrible joke, a parody of it, and America is the enemy. To save face, Putin must make sure that America loses face, looks weak, encourages a rogue China to play with fire, and Brittney? 

She is caught up in this and she needs to come home! Now! 

It will cost us. There will be naysayers countering that redemption encourages more of this behavior on the part of outlaw nations and leaders. They will say that the exchange person is a far worse criminal, unfair. Really? Unfair? Get the woman home. Home to her wife, her family, her fans. Get her home is the only thing that matters here.

My heart breaks every time I read of her situation, the loss of hope, the pain of being a pawn, the entirely possible existential threat to life and limb, certainly to any kind of viable life at least for the next nine years. An eternity in the dog eat dog of the Gulag prison camps, the starvation regimen and the impossible work assignments and quotas.

I am finding this situation totally unbearable, and here I sit in the comfort of my own home, no guards threatening me, no hopeless situation, no isolation from friends and family, from friendly caring words. No hope in a dark world. A world gone mad, insane, and Brittney sits there, all alone, hopeless, a pawn of life circumstances that caught up to her through no fault of her own. WE here in this country must make a whole lotta noise, force the powers that be to redeem her and stop playing politics on a deadly level with innocent non players of that game, that deadly game.

WE are all #42 and will remain so until she is home. Until we ban all travel to Russia and other bandit nations who think that an American in their midst is a free pass to anything they want. Deprive them of the victims. Inconvenient for many, but a whole lot better than the situation of Brittney.

My heart is breaking for this woman and her loved ones. I can write my representatives in DC, though most are useless, corrupt, full of bluster with little substance. I can wear a shirt with a slogan to free Brittney. But I cannot be Brittney, even as we all must be so. There but for the grace of G- go you or me or a loved one or a friend or simply any other American caught up in this terrible place, this deadly game. 

What can we do? Keep up the pressure on the government. Making noise is part of the answer, even as Russia says no publicity. Why? It makes them not look so good in the eyes of the world; a world already angry with her. They have made this mess, and now they must clean it up; however, we must be very strong, demand to keep an eye on Brittney so she does not "disappear" from the public eye. Wear the shirts with the slogans, make calls, send emails, form letters, whatever it takes. But GET HER HOME.

The Jewish code of behavior and laws makes the redemption of captives a priority, a must, not a voluntary process, but a mandated one. Jews from one country would raise funds to redeem a captive Jew from another country. Why? Because it is the right thing, the moral thing, the only thing to do.

Let us redeem our American captive. A mitzvah greatly needing success. Let us hurry up about it.