Sunday, February 25, 2024

Talk about overcoming adversity... Ukraine!

From Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson, on Feb. 23, 2024 



"Two years ago today, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky made a passionate plea to the people of Russia, begging them to avoid war. He gave the speech in Russian, his own primary language, and, reminding Russians of their shared border and history, told them to “listen to the voice of reason”: Ukrainians want peace!"

Instead, Putin "trumped" up a posture of a completely Russian devised invasion from the Ukraine, for which he invaded them.

"But rather than collapsing, Ukrainians held firm. The day after Russia invaded, Zelensky and his cabinet recorded a video in Kyiv. “We are all here,” he said. “Our  soldiers are here. The citizens are here, and we are here. We will defend our independence…. Glory to Ukraine!” When the United States offered the next day to transport Zelensky outside the country, where he could lead a government in exile, he responded:

“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”

That statement echoes powerfully two years later as Ukraine continues to stand against Russia’s invasion but now quite literally needs ammunition, as MAGA Republicans in Congress are refusing to take up a $95 billion national security supplemental measure that would provide aid to Ukraine. 

Instead, Republicans spent the day insisting that they do not oppose in vitro fertilization, the popular reproductive healthcare measure that the Alabama Supreme Court last Friday endangered by deciding that a fertilized human egg was a child—what they called an “extrauterine” child—and that people can be held legally responsible for destroying them. Since the decision, Alabama healthcare centers have halted their IVF programs out of fear of prosecution for their handling of embryos. 

The good news for the Republicans is that their frantic defense of IVF means that the media has largely stopped talking about the news of just two days ago, the fact that the man whose testimony congressional Republicans relied on to launch an impeachment process against President Joe Biden turned out to be working with Russian operatives. House leaders have quietly deleted from their House Impeachment website the Russian disinformation that previously was central to their case against Biden. 

But today, as Republican House members remain on vacation, President Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was in Ukraine, where he challenged House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to pass the national security supplemental bill. “The weight of history is on his shoulders,” Schumer told reporters in Lviv. “If he turns his back on history, he will regret it in future years.”

“Two years,” Ukraine president Zelensky wrote today. “We are all here…. Together with representatives of Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Egypt, Estonia, the EU, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, the Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Türkiye, the UAE, the United Kingdom, the USA, Viet Nam, as well as international organisations….”

Slava Ukraini."




9 comments:

  1. Your post made me cry. At the beginning we all helped personally. We gave money, a colleague loaded his bus with items needed and even drove into Kiev, but there was little use in these little actions. Germany promised and promised and acted too slow. The online news at my workplace had/has daily updates.
    Here in Australia we only saw the desaster on TV today, otherwise it is quiet.
    Putin will not give up. He sits in some warm, safe place and feeds his men with false infos, sending them to death. Untrained men, what a coward he is. I usually wish no one bad, but him.
    I do hope our neighbors stay strong or that the Russian people say: NO MORE!
    Heck, this is as if Germany and Bavaria would fight, we more or less speak the same language also, just different accents.

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    1. This disaster for a small country will not be forgotten, as long as we keep talking about it, I hope. Putin and tRump are somewhat similar, though Putin has less of the clown aspect, I think. Anyway, politics are deciding the fates of those poor people in the Ukraine.

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  2. I hope Ukraine stays strong! Take care, have a wonderful day and happy new week.

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  3. ...brave people aren't getting the support that they need.💛💙

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    1. I can't believe for two years this fight has overrun the Ukraine.

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  4. Two years on and Russia is throwing their young population away..as well as the harm to Ukraine it cannot be doing Russia much good.

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    1. Yes, I noted that when Russian demonstrators about opposition to Putin were arrested, some were drafted to fight against Ukraine. The forces of those who promote autocracy (tRump and Putin etc) have to contend with those of democracy, as our next US election will illustrate.

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  5. It is a terrible situation. There are days I have to turn off the news. Such awful people, dictators. Your header is amazing!

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There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.