Navalny: The Dangers That Lie Ahead If America Becomes Russia

 Today Alexsei Navalny was buried in Russia. He was a dissdent who spoke up for decades, knowing full well he risked assasination in his country for his powerful voice.  He died in jail, having returned from Munich where he could have lived with a level of peace and serenity; however, he returned to Russia, only to be placed in the worst prison in the Vladimir region of central Russia, where he was placed in a punishment cell. Everyone who attended the funeral--thousands--risked the possibility of jail and possibly death, since this dictatorship keeps a tight wrap around every aspect of life, including and primarily, those who call out against injustice. Russia is a dangerous place, and right now America has an indicted former president running for the presidency of the United States, again, and he is equally dangerous. He has vengeance against the opposition on his mind. The prospect of a Trump presidency is terrifying, There is writing on the wall, just as there was in Nazi Germany, and people are not paying attention. They are in love with the strong man, Trump, who is turn is in love with Putin, who is lethal. The Republican party has drank the poisonous kool-aide, but so have many of our institutions, the House and all his blind followers. America is planting ugly and terrifying seeds.

The signs in America are already there that we are going backwards in a lawless way; otherwise, Trump and his cronies would have already been jailed. The horror reached a culminating point this week when the Supreme Court decided to hear his immunity case. I have no faith that they will say a president who is no longer president is immune from criminal cases, even though he had secret and classified documents hidden in his Florida home, including in his bathroom. He claims these documents are his. He also was the catalyst behind the January 6th insurrection, where countless people were injured and hiding, while the storming others were defacating on the floor, smashing glass and screaming, "Hang Mike Pence." Adding insult to injury, aside from his chronic lies, he has such a hold on the party that the recent bi-partisan imnmigration bill was dead on arrival in the house because Trump is afraid if it passes it will enhance the Democrat's chance of winning the election in 2024. People in Congress are afraid of the aftermath of his wrath. We are becoming that totalitarian state, fearful of supporting Ukraine and modelling ourselves after his Russian ally, Putin,  this same man who has threatened the West with nuclear escalation and has praised the Russian politcal system as,"one of the foundations of the country's sovereignty." 

Listen to Trump's words political pundits are saying as he continues verbally to assault all our norms, threatens to execute Mark Milley, get rid of civil servants, put children in cages, assasinate or jail his political opponents. We have already seen the dismantling of Roe vs. Wade; the possibility of  eliminating smae-sex marriage; threatening transgender rights; women's rights; climate change; all of our laws and conventions dismantled before our very eyes. Trump's con men were willing to overturn an election. What is next when books are banned; IVF is banned in one state; an embryo becomes a person and the press--aside from Fox News--is daily bashed?

I am terrified of his words and the possibility of a world where he places his sycophants in positions of power and jails those who have erred him. He has said he would only be a dictator for one day. This is a blatant lie. Once in the White House, your precious rights and freedoms will be gone, and there will be no protections. Like Russia, your opposing voice will be threatened, and the risk for jail would be overwhelming. He will be president, change the laws and stay in the office forever if given a chance, until he dies. 

I am afraid for our country of this would be king. I pray that people, even those not in love with Biden, realize the risks of their silence, of not voting, of saying nothing bad will happen. It already has.

The Perfect Day

 I just saw this movie about a man who has clearly left his moneyed life to live a simpler, more meaningful life. It has circulated with me for days, not because I am moving in that direction, but because I am filled with sorrow, at times, because the disparity between the haves and the have-nots grows larger by the minute. My friend and I had an engaged discussion about this: having grown up poor, what does it mean to now lead the privileged life? We recognize we are the haves and would never go back, yet we know what we acquired by having less growing up. It made us resourceful, resilient, capable and appreciative of being alone. It made the small items we received huge and wonderful. It also made us, at times, uncomfortable with our adult lives, which is not so bad, because the excesses we have are truly that--too much. How does one make peace with so much, when you look around and see so many who have so little? There is no answer to this.

A friend once asked me, when my children were young, how can you be a person with money and keep your children from being spoiled. They way we did it was for them NOT to go everywhere, not to get everything, but still, it was not easy. It was not perfect. Nor was it perfect to grow up poor.

But in this movie, the main character clearly had money at one time, and left his family of origin to live a quiet, simple life, where he had great pleasure. I could not go there, but still, there is an allure in discarding, getting rid of, seeing less can be more. At the end of the day, money, objects, trips, all pleasurable, do not make one happy, particularly when you are doing all of these things and you look around, there are too many people who have been left behind.

I do not wish to be the character in the film, though I do admire and enagage in appreciation of the smaller and simpler beauties in life. I wish we did not live in a life of either or, since EXCESS and HAVING TOO LITTLE both are problematic. I wish for a better world where the rich do not get richer and the poor, poorer. I remember having so little, and it was hard, but I also know the appreciation of those moments when my Dad took me to a movie or bought me a new winter coat. Like the character in the film, I thought I was getting something precious in the world. The character in the film, in his small habits and routines, felt that way. How many people can say that? Not many! And that is sad.