01/23/2024
This is from my cousin in Michigan. I very enlightening message
No, this isn't the regular birthday or anniversary message. It's a personal one.
As many of you know, the parents of Paul Whelan who is a guest of Mr. Putin in a prison camp in Mordovia, Russia, are friends of mine. In fact, his mom, Rosemary is a very dear friend. I have seen her age a lot in the last five years. She keeps smiling even when we can see the tears in her eyes.
If any of you ever, ever think President Biden and his Secretary of State Antholny Blinken are not doing their very best for ordinary citizens, let me tell you something.
Blinken has spoken to both Paul and to his parents several times. A couple of days ago, Rosemary and Ed got a very lengthy call from someone else...President Joseph Biden whom some have ridiculed..yes, ridiculed..for being "too old" to be president. Paul's imprisonment has been terribly hard on his sister, Elizabeth, his twin brother, David, and obviously on Rosemary and Ed. Elizabeth has met with Biden at least twice. TWICE. And, as you may guess, Biden is a fairly busy man. He took the time to talk to the Whelans...and more, importantly, maybe, to listen to them. And we know that he and Blinken have used and are still using every tool in the box to get Paul home.
I'm going to get political here...If you think that Donald Trump would give the family of a political prisoner the kind of care and sympathy that the Whelans have gotten from President Biden, please think again. To Trump, the Whelans would be too unimportant and I would guess that Paul might even be labeled a "loser" for having been imprisoned in the first place. John McCain was a "loser" too. Our history has shown time and again that the presidency is as much about character as it is policy.
I would ask you to think about that during this election year.
I love you all. And thanks for reading this.
Joan
