“Now, finally, your children,” he said, “your daughters and sons are in jail, many of them, and I’m sure many of the parents are here tonight.” Then he said simply, “Don’t worry about them.” That alone smothered some of the desperate fears and skittering rumors—tales true and false about rats, beatings, concrete beds, overflowing latrines, jailhouse assaults, and crude examinations for venereal disease. “They are suffering for what they believe,” he said, “and they are suffering to make this nation a better nation.”
