Fiddling

Tonight’s Sky – Photo: L. Weikel

I just watched Ali Velshi reporting from Lviv, Ukraine, as he stands in for Rachel Maddow on her eponymous show. I’m struggling to come up with something – anything – I can write that doesn’t make me feel like I’m fiddling while Rome burns. Ali was reporting on the utter carnage (war crimes) perpetrated by Russian soldiers in Bucha, a suburb of Kiev, and the reality is devastating.

It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that such atrocities are happening right now, as we live and breathe and move on with our lives. I’m conflicted, knowing that vast numbers of Russian soldiers didn’t even know they were spearheading a war; indeed, many thought they were either heading into a training mission or they would be greeted with flowers, as liberators, by the people of Ukraine. I’m conflicted because most of these conscripted youths probably cannot comprehend the reality they discovered, especially the ferocity of the Ukrainians.

So what level of insanity and barbarity had to overtake these soldiers to cause them to commit the atrocities that are being discovered?

No Silver Lining

When hearing that on the fences outside the homes where people were brutally raped and murdered signs were taped that simply said, “We are peaceful people,” one can only surmise that the soldiers were overcome with some sort of psychosis. Literally, they had to have devolved into insanity.

This is all the more apparent when one considers that there is no way to physically distinguish between a Ukrainian person and a Russian person. These soldiers, therefore, committed these heinous acts on people indistinguishable from their own friends and families.

I’m not in any way saying that it’s ok to butcher people who physically appear different from us. I just know that autocrats and dictators cultivate hatred of anyone who appears ‘other’ to us. Separation, blame, vilification of anyone different than us, they’re all tactics to separate us from each other, from our shared humanity.

This whole situation is forcing us to confront the grim reality that there truly are – and never will be – any winners in this situation. (If we were paying attention, we knew from the very beginning that all of this was unfolding as a result of one man’s egotistical attempt to impose his dream of a ‘reunited Russia’ on Ukraine.) How do we even begin to comprehend how completely different life was six weeks ago for so many or that any of this could happen in the 21^st century.

No More?

There is nothing to celebrate (even if the ferocity of the Ukrainians’ hearts does bring a measure of pride and hope). There isn’t a single silver lining. I’d like to think the nauseating images we’re seeing would lead the world to unite and say, “NO MORE. We said ‘never again’ after WWII and we meant it!”

But alas, our hearts continue breaking every single moment this barbarity continues.

We must find a way to change our trajectory or no one will survive. (Our bodies may survive, but our hearts and souls will be crushed.) We must find a way. We must somehow create a silver lining – for our future generations, if nothing else. We must find a way to heal humanity.