"The Truth About What I Think..."

As I've said before, I don't like celebrity fandom and I don't watch award shows like the Academy Awards or the Grammy Awards which were held Sunday night, but I do follow the news of the world including the news from beyond the sainted-borders of the U.S. and her "western" allies.  Right now, the "western" world is following Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine and it's daily news (as it ought to be).  And the outrage over Vladimir Putin's actions have entered our everyday discourse. While I doubt we'll be talking about what happened Sunday night at the Grammy's, in the same way were still talking about "The slap that was heard around the world..." something significant did happen the other night.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is no stranger to the power of media, appeared on screen at the Grammy Awards in a pre-taped speech, even as Russian forces continued their brutal assault on his country and it's innocent civilian population. Zylenskyy's appearance came in a short video which was reportedly filmed sometime late last week, and was presented just before performer John Legend appeared with Ukrainian musicians Siuzanna Iglidan and Mika Newton, and poet Lyuba Yakimchuk to perform his song, "Free."

In his remarks, President Zelenskyy spoke about music and the toll of the ongoing war on Ukrainians. He said in his country, musicians have traded their tuxedos for body armor and he lamented that children in his country now draw "swooping rockets" rather than "shooting stars."  And this has provoked a strange sense of the injustice in the everyday Americans who love to claim that they are the possessor's of the moral compass of the world.

Like most people in the "west," my sympathies are with the Ukrainians... In fact, I don't feel we're doing enough to help them. I understand our reticence to directly challenge another nuclear power, but what constantly leaves me nonplused is the hypocrisy of the rapid and substantial aid we have given... On a Sunday morning talk show, a U.S. official stated that we'll soon have supplied 10 anti-tank weapons to the Ukrainian forces for every Russian tank that's in their country... And I keep asking myself, how is it that we are so willing to intervene in the suffering being inflicted on Ukraine, a conflict that's only just begun a month ago and yet we ignore other wars that have raged on for years, including wars where we've supplied the weapons that are inflicting death and destruction upon equally innocent women and children -- think the "conflict" in Yemen.  

As I go through my days and ponder such irreconcilable quandies, I keep coming back to the same conclusion... We just don't care about brown people suffering and dying. We could care less about war, famine and disease when it affects the non-rich and the non-white world.  And some will shockingly ask of me, what evidence do I have of this?  And offered for your consideration is the most poignant example I can think of, that of the reception that Ukrainian refugees are receiving. The U.S. has pledged to admit no less than 100,000 Ukrainian's for immediate resettlement.  And while I'm thankful for our generosity towards these victims who have lost so much, I'm torn to reconcile this with the reception Haitian refugee who lost just as much and far more innocently.  Maybe you remember how they were met at the southern border by agents on horseback wielding whips in a scene that could've been drawn from the pages of history and era of slavery.  

Yes, there was an outcry over the horrific scene at the border, and the result was "We won't use horses anymore..."  Where was America's warm welcome for these refugees? Oh yes, that's right, there wasn't one. Black and brown people's suffering is not important enough to garner our attention for more than a moment or two, because we just don't care. And that's the truth of what I think.

"Fear Eats the Soul"