The image above is from a recently posted video from a small village outside of Kyiv. Provided through Radio Free Europe, Liberty Radio, there are many more on YouTube and other media. In this video you see regular citizens who have picked up weapons, volunteered for the defense forces and are fighting. In this clip, a squad of volunteers is receiving instructions on how to apply a tourniquet.
What caught my eye, was the soldier in the grey hoodie with the message, Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. There, amidst the clamor of battle, is a faint echo of home. Our world is tightly bound together by media. We have an evolving, shared 21st Century Culture, global economy, and desire for democracy and rule of law.
The idea that we can hunker down in the USA, letting the rest of the world fend for itself, died in 1914 with the start of World War One. Like it or not, every nation is bound to every other and when one suffers, it’s effects ripple out across the world. The the impact isn’t always immediate or obvious. But, like the Sahara desert’s dust that is blown over the Atlantic and fertilizes the Amazon rain forest, it is real and, in the long-term, consequential. No matter where it occurs, war, injustice, famine, disease, and climate change, it eventually touches us all. It requires that we all act together to stop oppression, end human misery, and cease murdering our planet. The world’s response to Ukraine’s tragedy demonstrates we have the capability to unify and act in each other’s behalf.
So, there stands some guy, sworn to defend his homeland, wearing a hoodie with the name of a Minnesota company that develops and manufactures pacemakers. A device that, two weeks ago, was inserted into my chest. Who is this warrior? Is his connection with the Twin Cities intimate or circumstantial? Did he run in the TC Marathon? Does he have family or friends here? Or, perhaps the hoodie was part of a package of supplies gathered here and sent there?
Regardless, I send him my greetings and prayers that he and his comrades make it through these dark days and be victorious in defending Ukraine.
It Must Be True, I Saw It On The Internet
Part of my daily news collection, I check out a variety of international news sources; Alazeera, BBC News, France24, and US news CNN and MSNBC. I also read the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, Inside Climate News and a variety of other sources.
The videos coming from Ukraine deserve critical analysis as to who is providing them and why. Often, clips from the same event are presented multiple times with different titles and claims. If you watch enough of these grim glimpses into the invasion of Ukraine and compare to other known sources, it’s possible to begin to identify what is reasonably credible, considering their intent. Radio Free Europe / Liberty Radio, is one. It’s an independent US government information organization associated diplomatic efforts. It’s parent agency is the U.S. Agency for Global Media, whose mission is,”vital to US national interests”, and to “inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.” My experience has been that RFE/LR has been accurate. Another important source is Voice of America, VOA, which is the USA’s official international news broadcast system.
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