8 July 2010 Dearest Omar, itis gorgeous warm evening here In Edmonton. | have been in the library all day working on a Bunyan paper (John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrims Progress, a classic right up there with Paradise Lost). | have been behaving like a high school student, saving my assignment to the last minute, In any case, |am supposed to be writing the paper now, but | can’t pass up the opportunity to write to you instead. | woke up on Wednesday to the news that the Canadian Federal Court has given the Government of Canada 7 days to address the breach in your constitutional rights. ! woke up this morning to hear that you fired your US lawyers. Wow. That is a lot of activity in three short days! News: ‘Omar, are you sure that this is the right time to fire the US lawyers? | am an onlooker, an outsider, but as | see things you have nothing to gain and everything to lose by firing your US attorneys at this know that the pre-trial court sessions are a sort of hell, and I don’t blame you for wanting to avoid the next set. The problem is that the moment you fire your lawyers, the forces of injustice and evil win. As events here at home indicate this week, things are moving behind the scenes even if we can’t see them. We need to have faith that something good may yet happen. ‘As you know, Omar, you are a pawn in a high-stakes game of chess. If you quit before the trial begins, you lose. If, on the other hand, you are able to endure until the trial begins it is hard to say how things may go. In any case, if you still feel strongly about firing your US lawyers once the trial has begun there will be plenty of time to make that happen. In the meantime, you do not need to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. If the lawyers are asking you to do something that makes you uncomfortable, tell them and stand your ground. When it comes to the next set of pre-trial sessions, know that there is nothing anyone in Guantanamo can do to humiliate you if you make your mind up to that fact. Be strong, Omar. Stand tall. People can do all sorts of horrible things to you, but you alone decide how you react to those actions. Choose to be loving, patient, kind. As Mahatma Ghandi has said, we each need to be the change that we want to see in the world, It might help to remember that each of the people you are dealing with has his or her job to do. So much of what happens to you is not personal, Omar. You have done a wonderful job to date of seeing the best in everyone around you and finding ways to be fully human in an environment that seeks at every turn to deny your humanity. The strongest, most compelling thing you can do is react with LOVE to everything and everyone you ‘encounter. This will take every ounce of strength you have, but you will not be alone as you do this important work. God keeps you especially close when people are mean. He takes our suffering and makes something beautiful with it. if you ask for God's help, He will provide you with strength you did not know you could muster. As I think | mentioned once before, John Milton argues in his poetry thatsometimes standing and waiting is the most heroic thing we can do. Be heroic, dear Omar. You have been through so much. Don't quit now. There. That is all of my advice for the moment. Know that as | give you al of this brave advice my heart aches for all that you may have to face. Know too that | have not let up on my prayers. The God of ‘Abraham is one very busy God these days! My prayer mail alone must keep Him occupied for the better part of His waking hours. On a more serious note, every time | pray about you | feel very certain that God hears me. Someday we will look back on this time and marvel that we could not see how it would all turn out. In the meantime, and as you so often remind me, we have to cling to our HOPE. Because we trust in God, we have a certain HOPE. We must play the game to its conclusion; we must not give up. Books: Last time | wrote I sent you a book list that included the title Sealed Nectar. We read it at our last book club meeting and the ladies did not like it at all, so maybe you should move that one to the bottom of your list. | read it over quickly, and it seemed interesting enough. It contains many stories about the prophets (peace be upon them), and the ladies felt that many lacked proper authority. | am on thin ground when it comes to knowledge of both Koran and the hadiths, so | defer to the ladies’ good judgment. if you are looking for another title, however, you might try a new book called Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel. It is @ historical fiction set in Henry the Eight’s England. tt is chalk full of good history, mystery and political intrigue. You might find it more interesting than reading about herbs and natural remedies! It will also help you when you take your world history course in your first year of university studies. So, dear student of mine, | must get back to my paper. As usual, | am sending you my very, very, very, very, very best salaams! Arlette