I stand with Ukraine.
I took a break from humor last week and wrote about a couple of sporting situations where the adult role models failed. I ended that blog with the following: The plan is to return to my usual lighthearted missives next week. I sure hope nothing happens in the next few days to change my mind. Call me prophetic. Sadly. I am sorry to say the humor needs to wait at least another week.
This week I want to talk about role models again. But, this time I want to focus on someone who is showing up for his people. In ways no one imagined just a few short days ago.
While the Russian head of state sits in a custom-tailored suit in his Moscow office, something quite different is happening in Kyiv. A head of state in a brown t-shirt is quite literally on the streets alongside his people, putting his life on the line helping his country defend its freedom.
And those people are responding in spades.
Volodymyr Zelensky is what real leadership looks like. He is a role model in the truest sense.
The Ukrainian people are what real courage looks like.
The Ukrainian nation is what real patriotism looks like.
Guess who else has joined the fight in the streets of Kyiv? The former president, who Zelensky beat a few short years ago. President Zelensky and his predecessor are not political partners, but they are both rallying fellow citizens to save their fragile democracy. That’s what bipartisan cooperation looks like.
Perhaps we can learn something from our Ukrainian brothers and sisters as they rise to defend their nation.
In sharp contrast, Vladimir Putin is what a war criminal looks like. He is the personification of evil on earth. I truly hope he is brought to justice in an international war crimes trial just as Nazi leaders were after World War II. May he ultimately hang in a public ceremony at high noon on Moscow’s Red Square for all the world to see.
In the interim, he is a very dangerous person. He has the keys to the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, and he is not a well-balanced man. This is the most dangerous time our world has faced since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. That’s something to be understood and very concerned about.
Pray for the Ukrainian people. Pray for President Zelensky and his family. Pray for former President Petro Poroshenko. Pray for Americans to do whatever it takes to protect our own fragile democracy.
Winston Churchill said it best: Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.
One of these days I’ll get back to writing lighthearted blogs. But not this week, not when my heart aches for the gutsy people of Ukraine.
DY: In Just a Few Words is a blog that comes out when something needs to be said or every Tuesday - whichever comes first. Davis Young is a communications professional who adds 50+ years of experience and perspective to issues of the day. His emphasis in DY: In Just a Few Words will be humor (a touch of sarcasm here, a pinch of facetiousness there...). Once in a while, he will touch on something a bit more serious - but hopefully not too deep or depressing.
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