After 100 years of sleep, Sleeping Beauty, her parents the King and Queen, indeed, the whole kingdom awoke from their dreamtime. Arms extended and mouths yawned. Our sleepy time 2016-2023 with varying dates as individuals is coming to an end. Life and the social niceties are returning as the dismissive nature of the last years to an increase in kindness and care and other forms that nurture and support us.
Grieving in a meaningful way, remembrances that mark time and recall loved ones have been too absent. In truth, to watch TFG put down a wreath and shlep along through the motions has been worse than no memorialization at all. As these occasions arise, each one now also marks a return to an emotionally safer place. Empathy has taken a beating.
Joe Biden’s trip to Ukraine on February 20th was, perhaps a President’s Day gift. The trip was so well covered in media but the memorial aspect to the coverage was perhaps missed by everyone except by Rachael Maddow and a guy I follow on YouTube, Phil Ittner. Philip is an American journalist who is retired from the big alphabet platforms and is a free agent to bring more stories and he does, from Ukraine. Nice guy too, it seems.
The story of the one hundred souls that lost their lives and commemorated on February 20, 2014 is poignant for many reasons. No. 1 on my list is that nine years before the agreed date of the start of the brutal unprovoked attack on Ukrainian people by Putin, the war had actually begun, as we know but it hasn’t been drawn to our attention much lately. Every country has its unique story with important moments that get told and retold. Coming of age stories if you like that become part of the calendar forever.
The history of Ukraine and Russia is the subject of books as its history is of the forever kind and not a particularly good one for the Ukraine. Most recently, wanting very much to be aligned more with Europe, to bring democracy to Ukraine, were the basic goals as it struggled to push against the president, Viktor Yanukovyuch installed by Putin much as a governor with authority to Putin. The story of the Heavenly Hundred as they are called in Ukraine, is the story that directly predates the election of Volodymyr Zelensky.
As Zelensky came to power, the media in the US marginalized his profile, talking up his former career as a comedian. On his visit to Washington in 2019, a memorable visit to the US, seeking help and funding already set aside by US congress during the Obama administration, Zelensky was nearly denied the funding. You know who was instrumental.
Photo from September 25, 2019
Zelensky and Ukraine did get the funding but not without a lot of tsuris (yiddish for trouble). It was quite the side show here as well.
On our side of the world, we were buried and still are hit from time to time with shouts of Hunter Biden’s Laptop, as Former made the faux claims in his campaign to paint the Ukrainians as corrupt and undeserving of any monetary assistance. The bold lies were assisted by an “op” that Hunter Biden (Joe’s son) who had worked in Ukraine during the transition from the corrupt Yanukovyuch to the democratically elected Zelensky. The claim is Hunter was also corrupt and left damning evidence of his dirty dealings on his laptop. Spoiler? It’s a bogus claim.
The Revolution of Dignity or Maidan Revolution/Ukrainian Revolution took place February of 2014. Deadly clashes took place in Kyiv that in the end sent Yanukovyuch fleeing to daddy in Mother Russia.
First there were protests in response to Yanukovych’s refusal to sign trade agreements ready to go, approved and finalized by the Ukrainian parliament with Europe. (EU at the time) Yanukovyuch exerted pressure to deny it, siding with Russia’s pressure to deny.
There is no free speech protection in that part of the world. People protested knowing full well the danger possible to them because of Russia’s policies, which they protested. The abusive use of power, use of police brutality, human rights violations are well known and obvious to us in the West.
The protests grew in size. On the 18th of February, 20,000 protesters we in Kyiv and the deadly business began. In just a few days 13 police were dead, 1,100 people injured and in the end, 103 protesters perished in the violence.
The deadliest clashes were on 19-20 February, which saw the most severe violence in Ukraine since it regained independence. Thousands of protesters advanced towards parliament, led by activists with shields and helmets, and were fired on by police snipers. On 21 February, Yanukovych and the parliamentary opposition signed an agreement to bring about an interim unity government, constitutional reforms and early elections. Police abandoned central Kyiv that afternoon and the protesters took control. Yanukovych fled the city that evening.
The next day 22 February, the Ukrainian parliament voted to remove Yanukovych from office…. (from Wikipedia, Revolution of Dignity)
Ukraine is still in the fight for their lives. To live in a democracy, where people decide their own future is the goal. To shape life for themselves and for their children. The fight is not new. It’s the fight they have chosen over and over again, wining and moving to the next obstacle showing only bravery and determination.
The depiction of Zelensky as a beggar by the some in our country are the same ones that labeled him a comedian or criticize his military uniform as insulting attire. No matter what his profession, career or job previous to his election, Zelensky is the president of Ukraine an independent country and the leader of his nation in war.
Ukraine is under siege by a murderous dictator who seeks ownership by colonization or failing that, annihilation of the people of and the land itself of Ukraine. Putin’s message is clear.
In support of democracy, in support of people who have asked for bullets, our message has to be just as unambiguous.
Thanks for being here. Join me on the journey.