Relative Something

The ugly spectacle of war has a fresh outburst staining the human experience, echoing all the wars, big and small, that have come before. I don’t have as much reason to celebrate all things Ukrainian as I do to detest the decisions of Putin’s Russia. The possibility that Russia is undertaking aggression that risks chances of becoming a world war leaves us all witnesses to history repeating itself.

It is deeply unsettling to watch insanity play out in real-time. It is frustrating to witness lies perpetrated endlessly with little in the way of consequences. In the US, we have been subjected to bizarre levels of misinformation from unbelievable numbers of misguided followers of dubious individuals for too many recent years.

This morning I saw a few clips from just a few weeks ago with quotes from Russian leadership stating that they wouldn’t invade Ukraine.

Sure they won’t.

I don’t want a world war. At the same time, it feels wrong to just watch a world power unleash its military might against any other nation-state without a unified response from the rest of the world beyond threats to economically shun them. Maybe isolating the invading nation will ultimately cripple them, but it is really difficult to endure the carnage that is being unleashed in the meantime.

It stings to see and hear the blatant misinformation and concurrent ban of world news that is being reported as happening in Russia.

If there is a lesson to be learned in becoming a well-informed person, I suggest that it should be one of developing healthy skepticism when messages become repeatedly and exclusively one-sided. Whether it be reasons to go to war, reasons to avoid mitigation actions during a virus pandemic, or reasons to blindly follow demagogues and autocrats, the exclusive messages heavily delivered should not be unquestionably swallowed.

Today, in order to purge the profusion of information showing battle-scarred people and places in Ukraine, I am striving to focus on the people rising to the occasion of supporting refugees flooding away from the war. That, and trying to remain patient in the difficult wait for economic sanctions to cause Russia to end their military aggression.

While doing so, I’m finding new reasons to celebrate all things Ukrainian with every passing minute.

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