Voices carry

Do you hate it when somebody stops you when you’re saying something important?  So do we!  It is especially galling when we’re not just letting off steam, but trying to redress wrongs, defend people’s rights – in short make waves.  And those with infinitely more money than morals hire the services of hackers to organize a DDOS attack against us. 

Well, in financial possibilities, we can’t compete, nobody’s disputing that.  What should also be clear is that we have no intention of returning to whispered conversations at the kitchen table..

Our sites are all running again and it’s time to move on, with more than just computer lessons learned. 

One is a vital lesson which we per force learned together. We would like to extend a very warm thank you to those who during that time placed our material on their sites and helped us in other ways spread the news.  A particularly heartfelt thanks to our friends at HRO.org, who responded immediately, offering a place on their site, posting our material in Russian and English and calling on other human rights organizations worldwide to show solidarity.

We won’t dwell here on why others did not respond.  Maybe those who did help had more reason to know about being stifled and intimidated.  They knew we needed attention and help in being heard. 

We would like to stress, however, here and now that each of us is in danger unless we stand together.  Those who wish to silence inconvenient voices have many weapons at hand and these days most transcend borders.

There will be new victims of such attacks unless we show them clearly and unequivocally the senselessness of even trying to stifle our voice.

Help us to teach them that voices carry and that for each stifled voice, many others will be heard throughout the world.

We have decided to create an SOS lifeline. If you have blogs or community sites and would be prepared to place our information in similar emergencies, please write to us at [email protected]  Perhaps you don’t have acess to a site, but do have an email and would be able to inform others. Please write to us!

If there are some who just won’t understand that freedom must not be crushed, let’s give them one clear message. You will not stifle freedom of speech and don’t bother trying.

Halya Coynash