Are you paying attention? Did you hear about the children? Thousands of them are missing. They have been lost in the war, stripped from their families, and taken east. Some have been placed with new families, and others are being indoctrinated at re-education camps or facilities — or whatever is the polite name for such places in the 21st century. Will you remember the first time you heard about the Ukrainian children? Do you wonder if your parents or grandparents read a story like this about the Jews in Europe once? In what year did they read it — 1937, 1934, 1942, or did they not know anything at all until it was all over?
We stood by and allowed Hitler to kill millions. We allowed Trump and his crew to snatch kids away from their parents at our southern border. Have we yet to find them all?
We have said that slaughtered children is simply the price we are willing to pay to preserve guns and our government stands by again while children are exploited by the Russian government.
Yes, Biden should be demanding the return of these children, everyday. So should the leaders of NATO. So should all of us. But, we don’t. The world should be crying out. But we don’t.
I asked my Republican Rep what his red line in the sand was. What was the end for him to support gun control, to save the lives of the children of this country. What would it take for him to say, enough. No response. I didn’t expect any. He is busy heading up the new anti-woke committee in the House.
Steve, how do we change this? How do we take a stand? How do we make this government that is supposed to ensure domestic tranquillity and the blessings of liberty hear us and change directions? How do we fix this, Steve? If we are to be a shining city upon a hill...What do we do to make a difference?
The typical answer would be vote. We have. We have voted in our gerrymandered states, we have voted and voted and voted. But, here we are. And the children continue to suffer.
Oh Steve. You make me cry with the futility of it all. And yet you give hope with one example of one man who saw it all too, and did something incredible, maybe impossible, but he did it -something magnificent. How do we go about this ourselves? Please help. Tell me more?
I read this essay, watched & listened to Steve’s remarks and read the WaPo piece..As always with such a topic, it moves me to a place of self assessment..Learning for the first time of the humanity and bravery of Nicholas Winton back in 1938, I look at myself and say “What am I doing to make a difference?”
I’m a retired 68yr old white American man with a slight disability (though I do not claim it), for the most part living on a fixed income of mostly Social Security, insured by Medicare. That said, I know that there are those in less secure situations, I am grateful to be where I am..However, I worry every day that those benefits will be dealt away in some way by people who for all intents and purposes have total control over my personal stability..
I constantly try to think of some side hustle, and of late a regular job to help supplement my income..Yet when I consider my circumstances to these children, I feel ashamed that I have the audacity to even consider whining about what may or may not happen to me..After all, I can take action on my own behalf..
I’m frustrated and angry at the helplessness I feel, being in no position to exact change to their situation or anything having to do with Ukraine for that matter.. Angry, in my belief that the West is not doing enough to exact that very change..
Early on, not long after Putin began this atrocity nearly a year ago I sent some money to a humanitarian aid effort for the Ukrainian people, where that money went, what part of it actually did anything to aid someone in need I will never know. Alas, that small chuck of money was simply a pimple on a bulls ass in comparison to what must be done to stop this genocide..
I do not possess the Foreign Policy acumen to know what the right thing to do is..My anger and frustration is acute..Oddly, it brings to mind the following quote:
“If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone”
~Michael Corleone
The Godfather Part II, art imitating life..
When I look at the goings-on in the world, as I absorb the stories of mass shooting after mass shooting, I find myself arriving at this conclusion, all of the wrong people are getting killed..
'A culture that kills its children has no future,' wrote Elizabeth Bruenig in the Atlantic after Uvalde. This is life in America, month after month. If we do not care for our own, how can we care for Ukrainian children? Three of the murdered children at MSU are from Metro Detroit where I reside. Five more cling to life in a Lansing hospital. I thought about this bitter irony: many people care about the unborn child. After birth they don't give a rat's ass until they are of voting age...maybe.
As a former pediatric R.N. I think about the children of Ukraine and of the United States. They are the most undeserved, as they have only a whisper of influence.
At the beginning of the war, as I saw Ukrainians moved into the east, I knew there was the likelihood we would never see them again Most likely they’re “adopted” into Russian families. It will be part of our mission to find and reunite them at wars end. The only hope is they’re safe and not killed in retaliation to Russia’s war failures.
On the US students, are you involved in improving our students lives? Are you voting for programs that help educate and protect students. Are you helping students participate in civic life? We can support their needs by our actions. We can involve them in the solutions.
What shall we do? This group who read Steve’s brilliance and his pleading. What can we do? I will start by tweeting (sorry) about The Children. I will tweet to Biden and Musk... they probably won’t see it. I am nothing on Twitter. But maybe you can too? What else? This is maddening. Watching hell.
History indeed seems to be repeating. Will the scale of the atrocities be allowed to gin up to that of 85 years ago when the world slept as the Nazi train began to roll? Your request of your readers, and the America people, seems to be not just to pause and understand the gravity of what's happening in Ukraine, but to understand it in terms of what we stand for as a nation. That understanding -should- affect our collective sensibility and manifest it in our votes.
Tragically, the lesson taught by the re-run of history we're watching is lost on fully half the nation. That half watches the daily re-run of American firearm slaughter with complete indifference. It's more than just indifference; It's an acceptance of the unique American horror show as a worthy price to pay for the right to bear arms. Be mindful, those lost to gun violence are the fellow citizens of those who vote to sustain the slaughter. Sustaining the murder and suicide rate is achieved by voting Republicans into office with a seeming mandate granted by those very voters, not to just maintain the level of violence, but to increase it by increasing the availability of guns while simultaneously legislating a decrease in common sense control. I would venture to say that the overwhelming majority of voters who get their Republican into office know a victim directly or are acquainted with a victim of gun violence in their community. They know the tragedy, the pain, the ruination, etc. and still what's wanted is guns everywhere, and without control.
How this relates to the current European menace is answered by asking; are those same voters who act to sustain gun violence on their neighbors likely to give one wit about violence or injustice on the other side of the globe? Will their elected Republican candidates extend that indifference and act on it by withdrawing American support of the Ukrainian army? The answer is obvious.
Oh what an excellent piece, Steve! In addition to the deeply moving "That's Life" segment, we can watch this one-hour documentary "Children Saved from the Nazis : The Story of Sir Nicholas Winton" , freely viewable at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT0yPjj0UqQ&t=11s and this 15-min. clip "Saving the Children" from 60 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0aoifNziKQ . And here's the 92 minute interview in 2013 with an aged but still very sharp Nicholas for the USC Shoah Foundation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIoT76X2KgM .
Steve, I was raised with a few of the survivors... at 1365 East 60th Street... they were destroyed... Lana was given a lobotomy in New Orleans... I shall never forget her face... it reminded me of Nadia Murad... who wrote her book here at Lewis Family Farm... and received the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, when that bunch finally awakened.
Your point about our distraction over things that don't really matter while we ignore the things that really DO matter is very well taken, and I am guilty of it myself. Shame on me, I say.
There is a short clip of Mr. Winton on Twitter or Instagram, I can't remember, but i do know that i watch it and cry every time I see it. His reaction to the people as they stand is wonderful. He was the Angel of Prague. The children in Ukraine are being stolen and transported to re-education centers. What do we do about it? - Seriously what do we do?
The fact that it happened here in the US, at the hands of the most unholy trinity of the insipid one that lost the election to President Biden, the fawning rotten to the core Jeff Sessions who sold his soul to become AG, and this lowest of the low POS, Stephen Millar, should give us all major cause for concern. There will be a special place in hell for anyone that knowingly brings harm to the innocent, Putin is going to have to make room in Hades for for those three who will be joining him there before long.
Putin, Trump’s buddy, is trying to remake Ukraine and its neighbors like Hitler remaking Europe. Genocide is considered a necessary part of his plan. That it is taking place under our watch makes us complicit for not taking action while witnessing it in real time.
I hope when this war ends war crimes tribunals will take place to hold the most egregious criminals accountable. There needs to be a reckoning before the first foundations are poured and before any bricks are laid in the rebuilding of Ukraine.
We stood by and allowed Hitler to kill millions. We allowed Trump and his crew to snatch kids away from their parents at our southern border. Have we yet to find them all?
We have said that slaughtered children is simply the price we are willing to pay to preserve guns and our government stands by again while children are exploited by the Russian government.
Yes, Biden should be demanding the return of these children, everyday. So should the leaders of NATO. So should all of us. But, we don’t. The world should be crying out. But we don’t.
I asked my Republican Rep what his red line in the sand was. What was the end for him to support gun control, to save the lives of the children of this country. What would it take for him to say, enough. No response. I didn’t expect any. He is busy heading up the new anti-woke committee in the House.
Steve, how do we change this? How do we take a stand? How do we make this government that is supposed to ensure domestic tranquillity and the blessings of liberty hear us and change directions? How do we fix this, Steve? If we are to be a shining city upon a hill...What do we do to make a difference?
The typical answer would be vote. We have. We have voted in our gerrymandered states, we have voted and voted and voted. But, here we are. And the children continue to suffer.
My friends and I are pooling our resources to bring Ukr families to the US.
We are also helping support a family of 14 Ukr refugees now living here.
Im sending funds and toys etc to a young family in Kyiv.
When I heard of the thousands of stolen Ukr children it became difficult to not feel personally overwhelmed and dangerously under financed.
Please never stop beating this drum.
I long to hear President Biden do exactly what you suggest: “Where are the stolen children, Mr Putin?”
Oh Steve. You make me cry with the futility of it all. And yet you give hope with one example of one man who saw it all too, and did something incredible, maybe impossible, but he did it -something magnificent. How do we go about this ourselves? Please help. Tell me more?
I read this essay, watched & listened to Steve’s remarks and read the WaPo piece..As always with such a topic, it moves me to a place of self assessment..Learning for the first time of the humanity and bravery of Nicholas Winton back in 1938, I look at myself and say “What am I doing to make a difference?”
I’m a retired 68yr old white American man with a slight disability (though I do not claim it), for the most part living on a fixed income of mostly Social Security, insured by Medicare. That said, I know that there are those in less secure situations, I am grateful to be where I am..However, I worry every day that those benefits will be dealt away in some way by people who for all intents and purposes have total control over my personal stability..
I constantly try to think of some side hustle, and of late a regular job to help supplement my income..Yet when I consider my circumstances to these children, I feel ashamed that I have the audacity to even consider whining about what may or may not happen to me..After all, I can take action on my own behalf..
I’m frustrated and angry at the helplessness I feel, being in no position to exact change to their situation or anything having to do with Ukraine for that matter.. Angry, in my belief that the West is not doing enough to exact that very change..
Early on, not long after Putin began this atrocity nearly a year ago I sent some money to a humanitarian aid effort for the Ukrainian people, where that money went, what part of it actually did anything to aid someone in need I will never know. Alas, that small chuck of money was simply a pimple on a bulls ass in comparison to what must be done to stop this genocide..
I do not possess the Foreign Policy acumen to know what the right thing to do is..My anger and frustration is acute..Oddly, it brings to mind the following quote:
“If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone”
~Michael Corleone
The Godfather Part II, art imitating life..
When I look at the goings-on in the world, as I absorb the stories of mass shooting after mass shooting, I find myself arriving at this conclusion, all of the wrong people are getting killed..
'A culture that kills its children has no future,' wrote Elizabeth Bruenig in the Atlantic after Uvalde. This is life in America, month after month. If we do not care for our own, how can we care for Ukrainian children? Three of the murdered children at MSU are from Metro Detroit where I reside. Five more cling to life in a Lansing hospital. I thought about this bitter irony: many people care about the unborn child. After birth they don't give a rat's ass until they are of voting age...maybe.
As a former pediatric R.N. I think about the children of Ukraine and of the United States. They are the most undeserved, as they have only a whisper of influence.
At the beginning of the war, as I saw Ukrainians moved into the east, I knew there was the likelihood we would never see them again Most likely they’re “adopted” into Russian families. It will be part of our mission to find and reunite them at wars end. The only hope is they’re safe and not killed in retaliation to Russia’s war failures.
On the US students, are you involved in improving our students lives? Are you voting for programs that help educate and protect students. Are you helping students participate in civic life? We can support their needs by our actions. We can involve them in the solutions.
Much work ahead
What shall we do? This group who read Steve’s brilliance and his pleading. What can we do? I will start by tweeting (sorry) about The Children. I will tweet to Biden and Musk... they probably won’t see it. I am nothing on Twitter. But maybe you can too? What else? This is maddening. Watching hell.
Another well written and enlightening post Steve.
History indeed seems to be repeating. Will the scale of the atrocities be allowed to gin up to that of 85 years ago when the world slept as the Nazi train began to roll? Your request of your readers, and the America people, seems to be not just to pause and understand the gravity of what's happening in Ukraine, but to understand it in terms of what we stand for as a nation. That understanding -should- affect our collective sensibility and manifest it in our votes.
Tragically, the lesson taught by the re-run of history we're watching is lost on fully half the nation. That half watches the daily re-run of American firearm slaughter with complete indifference. It's more than just indifference; It's an acceptance of the unique American horror show as a worthy price to pay for the right to bear arms. Be mindful, those lost to gun violence are the fellow citizens of those who vote to sustain the slaughter. Sustaining the murder and suicide rate is achieved by voting Republicans into office with a seeming mandate granted by those very voters, not to just maintain the level of violence, but to increase it by increasing the availability of guns while simultaneously legislating a decrease in common sense control. I would venture to say that the overwhelming majority of voters who get their Republican into office know a victim directly or are acquainted with a victim of gun violence in their community. They know the tragedy, the pain, the ruination, etc. and still what's wanted is guns everywhere, and without control.
How this relates to the current European menace is answered by asking; are those same voters who act to sustain gun violence on their neighbors likely to give one wit about violence or injustice on the other side of the globe? Will their elected Republican candidates extend that indifference and act on it by withdrawing American support of the Ukrainian army? The answer is obvious.
Oh what an excellent piece, Steve! In addition to the deeply moving "That's Life" segment, we can watch this one-hour documentary "Children Saved from the Nazis : The Story of Sir Nicholas Winton" , freely viewable at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT0yPjj0UqQ&t=11s and this 15-min. clip "Saving the Children" from 60 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0aoifNziKQ . And here's the 92 minute interview in 2013 with an aged but still very sharp Nicholas for the USC Shoah Foundation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIoT76X2KgM .
Steve, I was raised with a few of the survivors... at 1365 East 60th Street... they were destroyed... Lana was given a lobotomy in New Orleans... I shall never forget her face... it reminded me of Nadia Murad... who wrote her book here at Lewis Family Farm... and received the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, when that bunch finally awakened.
Your point about our distraction over things that don't really matter while we ignore the things that really DO matter is very well taken, and I am guilty of it myself. Shame on me, I say.
There is a short clip of Mr. Winton on Twitter or Instagram, I can't remember, but i do know that i watch it and cry every time I see it. His reaction to the people as they stand is wonderful. He was the Angel of Prague. The children in Ukraine are being stolen and transported to re-education centers. What do we do about it? - Seriously what do we do?
The fact that it happened here in the US, at the hands of the most unholy trinity of the insipid one that lost the election to President Biden, the fawning rotten to the core Jeff Sessions who sold his soul to become AG, and this lowest of the low POS, Stephen Millar, should give us all major cause for concern. There will be a special place in hell for anyone that knowingly brings harm to the innocent, Putin is going to have to make room in Hades for for those three who will be joining him there before long.
Putin, Trump’s buddy, is trying to remake Ukraine and its neighbors like Hitler remaking Europe. Genocide is considered a necessary part of his plan. That it is taking place under our watch makes us complicit for not taking action while witnessing it in real time.
I hope when this war ends war crimes tribunals will take place to hold the most egregious criminals accountable. There needs to be a reckoning before the first foundations are poured and before any bricks are laid in the rebuilding of Ukraine.