I STAND WITH UKRAINE
Let me hold the door for you. I may have never walked a mile in your Shoes,
but I can see that your soles are worn and your strength is torn
under the weight of a story I have never lived before.
So let me hold the door for you. After all you’ve walked through, it’s the least I can do.
Morgan Harper Nichols
I stand PROUDLY with Ukraine, HUMBLED by the COURAGE of its’ citizens and EXTRAORDINARY leadership of President Zelensky. My parents raised me not to scold, demean or insult victims of abuse, assault, rape or murder. Let us not miss the forest for the trees in recognizing Ukraine is the VICTIM of these and too many other gut wrenching, unbearable crimes against humanity.
- RUSSIA attacked & invaded Ukraine in 2014 right after welcoming Ukraine in it’s Sochi Olympics.
- RUSSIA funded wars that have continued ever since in Donbas & Luhansk.
- RUSSIAN missiles shot down a Malaysian airlines flight & killed all 298 passengers & crew including 80 children.
- RUSSIA ALREADY owns more land than any other nation. Their population is 3Xs Ukraine’s & Putin’s criminality has made him one of the wealthiest men on Earth.
- RUSSIA LIED FOR MONTHS about its’ pre-war troop buildups & invaded despite REPEATED attempts by world leaders for diplomatic resolution.
- RUSSIA invaded & tried to take ALL OF UKRAINE & eliminate it’s democratically elected leaders & anyone supporting supporting them.
- RUSSIA has DESTROYED Ukrainian cities and DEVASTATED it’s economy, stealing & looting with over $1 TRILLION DOLLARS in losses.
- UKRAINIANS ARE THE VICTIMS of displacement, kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, rape, murder, execution of POWs and collective trauma we can’t even begin to imagine.
I pray our basic decency & shared HUMANITY allows us to see this with COMPASSION. The United Nations, The International Criminal Court, International sports bodies, the Olympic committee, the World Cup, a majority of nations, and an enormous list of former Russian government officials, even the Pope all agree. Vladimir Putin has imprisoned thousands who dare to speak up, murdered Alexei Navalny, shot his own troops who try & flee from high casualty “meat grinder” full frontal assaults, decimated the Russian economy, and led an estimated 160-200,000 Russian troops – most from impoverished rural areas – to their premature deaths.
Where is our president’s courage in speaking out against THESE atrocities & injustices? If President Zelensky’s insistence of security guarantees to ensure his countries very SURVIVAL are seen as ungrateful, what then, by the same metric, are Putin’s ACTIONS? In what world does the U.S. vote with RUSSIA, NORTH KOREA, BELARUS & HUNGARY and against 93 allies of democratic nations in not acknowledging the simple, honest truth about this war?
Almost 20,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia and are being brainwashed & indoctrinated. President Zelensky’s wife & teenage children are, along with hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians & Russians, all being robbed of beautiful, priceless childhood memories together with their families. Too many Ukrainian & Russian children will never ever even know their parents. Where are Melania & Ivanka Trump, Usha Vance – mothers in their own right, speaking up & out to the horrors millions of Ukrainians & Russians have undergone from Vladimir Putin’s greed & brutality?
May we NEVER FORGET the grave INJUSTICE of this war, and speak of it with nothing less than our full-throated support for Ukraine in achieving a JUST & LASTING PEACE. Please tell me US foreign policy is based upon well thought out & clearly defined strategic interests in consultation with our allies, not temper tantrums or moods of the day. I certainly hope it’s not based on how we can advantage ourselves of those in dire need to line our pockets & fleece all we can from their suffering.
President Zelensky has HEROICALLY led his nation under an ENORMOUS burden I wish never visited upon anyone. He’s not a billionaire jetting off to golf every week, he & the nation of Ukraine are MIRACULOUSLY SURVIVING this completely unnecessary, man made catastrophe, David & Goliath if ever there was one. So let us hold the door for you Ukraine, after all you’ve walked through, it’s the least we can do.