Isn’t that the name of a movie? It also could be the title of the current scene playing here on planet earth as we spin around and around, slowly orbiting a medium sized star 93 million miles away known as the Sun. I just thought we should put this in context.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has wounded the whole world. It has left a gash in our collective sense of well being. It has shaken our complacency (maybe a good thing) and caused a lot of people to question their safety and security. I feel personally violated.
But things are not going smoothly for Mr. Putin’s dragon. 14,000 people have been detained (that means arrested) at anti-war protests around the country since Feb. 24 and thousands more have left, becoming essentially anti-war refugees. Neighboring Georgia reports 20,000 people arriving since the start of the war to escape the crackdown in Russia.
A state television employee burst onto the live broadcast of Russia’s most-watched news show on Monday evening, yelling “Stop the war!” and holding up a sign that said “They’re lying to you here,” in an extraordinary act of protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Watch it here. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/world/europe/russian-protester-tv.html
The resistance includes protests far and wide around the world. Including here in San Antonio at Main Plaza, Saturday at 3 o’clock. Maybe it’s not much in the face of tanks and missiles but . . . maybe it is. When people stand up and make a statement it can change a lot of things. Maybe it’s slow and incremental but isn’t that how real change happens? Tanks and missiles might rearrange the deck but they don’t change the game.
My friend (well I call him my friend but we’ve never met in person, only on Garrison Keillor and Friends and in the insubstantive realm of shared stories on the ‘Prairie Home Companion’ and common history having been a child evangelical like me) offered this on his regular column.
“I’m at an age where all the people who might’ve reassured me about this war are long dead and so I steady myself. Most of what agitated us a month ago is gone and forgotten, wiped out by the Russian tanks. We’re done talking about gender pronouns and woke tropes and done with the anti-mask b.s. and the Florida Orange, he is less relevant than pink plastic sandals, and what matters are the women and children fleeing for their lives, no idea what lies ahead, just the thought that Ukraine must survive and the civilized world must punish the war criminals.”
I ran across this on Soundcloud. Bar Scott’s response to the war in Ukraine. Beautiful, evocative, I invite you to take a listen. Here is what she wrote in accompaniment to her music.
“Images of the people of Ukraine moving from their homes -- sad, but standing tall, frightened, but also strong -- has inspired me. My heart breaks for them, but it also beats more strongly. Voices singing does my heart good. I wrote this piece to express my empathy, but also to lift our collective spirit. I hope it does that for you.”
This link Picnic on the Ice is from substack writer Nicie Panetta reviewing ‘Death and the Penguin’ a novel by Ukranian writer, Andrey Kurkov. Like many artists and writers in Ukraine, Kurkov is on the run. He’s hiding somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains hoping to stay alive. Free voices, especially those critical of Russia will not be safe. They will be interrogated and ‘detained’.
Writing recently in The Times of London, Kurkov says:
“If Russia succeeds, another executed generation of Ukrainian writers and politicians, philosophers and philologists may appear, all those for whom life without a free Ukraine does not make sense. I consider myself one of these people, as are many of my friends.”
Nicie Panetta adds:
“Voices like Kurkov’s offer us the chance to understand more deeply the complex historical forces now in play, as well as the admirable spirit of the Ukrainian people—who are so bravely fighting against Putin’s villainy and violence, as we all prepare to meet a future that seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago. When will it be safe for the people of Kyiv to enjoy a picnic once again?”
The song playing on the podcast is ‘Last Journey’ by Oliver Franken 00:14:08. It’s excerpted from a Youtube playlist by Blume, a producer whose music I have used often. He is Ukrainian. This image below is from . . . well I don’t know where it’s from. Probably a battlefield in Ukraine.
I’ll be at the protest Saturday, March 19, 3 o’clock at Main Plaza, reading Ukranian poetry. And this one which I just wrote.
so the war winds on
death and destruction
the weapons makers are happy
the mothers of the dead children
also called soldiers are sad
putin is mad
zelensky is . . .
hmm
that’s some crazy shit
Enter the dragon . . .