It's Like Hearing an Ambulance Now

Yesterday, while hoeing out the kitchen after two days of walking around the building mess, I had the tube tuned in on Velshi of MSNBC while I toiled. His whole Saturday show was a tribute to the year long war Ukraine has been fighting against Russia. 

Putin is attempting to take that which he has no right to take under some perverted rationale that seems to change whenever he changes his panties. It started out as a conflict to save the Ukrainians from themselves. The excuses Putin used and still uses make no sense to anyone with a brain. He wants Ukraine because he wants the legacy of a conquering hero and secretly I think he is under the impression it will make his package more intimidating. The boys down at the local butik love a big package.

A young Ukrainian woman, who had been displaced last year in the initial Russian invasion was in Poland I think when she was first interviewed by Velshi. She was distraught but defiant like so many Ukrainians were. Her main concern was for her father who served as a priest with the Ukrainian Army. 

A year has gone by and she is still concerned and even more defiant. She has been back in her country for awhile now. Her father still serves at the front with the Ukrainian troops, only now he is on a  Russian list of locals they would like to ... I am guessing they want to kill him. So she is still, maybe even more concerned for his safety than ever before.

Velshi interviewed her again for his war anniversary piece. He asked her how safe she felt back in country now. She told him that Ukrainians who still are in Ukraine have become more comfortable with the war swirling around them.The air raid sirens now don't create the same panic of the beginning of the war. Life has become more of live your life, but watch out. I paraphrase here:

"It's (air raid sirens) like hearing an ambulance in the distance now. People still go about their lives." 

I was struck by her comparison. It said a lot about the Ukrainians and their ability to compartmentalize their lives in a way that allowed them to live as close to some kind of normality as they can. 

Her statement also struck me as being what the war over there has become for Americans. It is now part of our day to day backdrop, an ongoing event that we are a part of kinda, but removed enough to be able to forget that people are dying daily because brutes and thugs want to take their land, their beings, their souls.

Her words reminded me that I had also become complacent and comfortable ignoring or only half listening at times of reports from the fronts. Well today my heart is with them and I again hope for an end to the madness sooner than later.

Supporting Ukraine in their struggle against the war criminal Putin is not only vital for Ukraine, it is vital for us. Stopping Russian aggression here and now will most likely save the planet a world of hurt in the future.

Now is exactly the wrong time to become complacent. 

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 I Googled "songs about holding your ground". The first one I spun seemed to fit fine. Here is "Hold Your Ground" from Cavo, a band I have never heard of. Of course I have become used to not having heard of an infinite number of bands. I'm just an old dog struggling with new tricks.