Cause, Courage, and Consequences

February 24, 2022 I found myself sitting in the dentist’s chair enduring that period of anxiety between when they give you the freezing needle and when you get to find out for sure that it worked.  It’s time spent alone to think your own thoughts and listen to the high pitched whine of drills being used on other patients. The dentist’s chair is not my happy place.

But this morning there was lots to think about.  Putin was on the move. His plans of war had been put into motion during the night. Cities full of people were being bombed; hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were on the run. By nightfall, how many innocent people would be dead because of this evil man’s ego? And this was only day one; wars don’t end in one day.

The office where I sat was warm and safe; Garth Brooks sang The Dance on the music system. Soon that nasty cavity would be a thing of my past and I could go have lunch and visit with a good friend; plans we made weeks ago.  And yet I couldn’t get the news video of almost deadlocked traffic trying to escape Kyiv out of my mind.  Those poor people had made plans for February 24 as well ... every day things like dentist appointments, dance lessons for their little girls, soccer for their boys after school ... and now, here they were crowded into their cars with everything they could squeeze in, not knowing where they were headed, watching their gas gauges go down and distressing about being able to buy more. 

My generation is acquainted with war ... or I should say stories of war.  We have heard about our grandfather’s Great War (although I’ve never felt that any war should be given the designation ‘great’), we’ve watched countless movies of the second world war, and our window into the Korean War was the show M*A*S*H  on TV.   We see war through the safety of a camera lens.  We don’t know the smell of death in the streets.  We don’t know the terror of running for bomb shelters or the sick feeling of living through the attack to find our house is nothing but rubble when we try to go home.  We can’t imagine what it would be like to be stopped by soldiers and asked for proof of who we are, knowing that this man has the power to decide if we live or die.

Tonight one of the news stories is not of Ukrainians fleeing but of Russians protesting against their government, against Putin himself, for starting this war. Imagine that. Standing up and saying “NO” to a man who poisons and imprisons and murders anyone he sees as an obstacle to his plans. They know that being arrested – even a Russian arrest – would be the lightest penalty they could hope for.  And yet they came and marched and sang their anthem in an effort to stop the war and save both Russian and Ukrainian lives.  The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Their cause is larger than just themselves, they show great courage in the face of real peril, the consequences of their actions could well be fatal, and yet they make their stand.

These are people who recognize they have a responsibility to humanity to stand up for what is right.  They want Putin to stop and they want the world to know that they don’t support his actions. As I sit in my safe dentist chair on the other side of the world I feel humbled by their sacrifice and pray that some good will come of it.

 

 

So much to think about ...

It’s been such a week I don’t even know where to begin.

First it was all the news and anti news over what is going on in Ottawa.  I am a self proclaimed news nerd and I cannot watch anymore.  One side shows videos of model citizens picking up garbage, clearing snow, cleaning the Terry Fox statue and kneeling before the Cenotaph while the other side talks of Ottawa residents afraid to go outside in their own neighbourhoods and businesses who were looking forward to opening up this week staying closed because they feel intimidated by the protestors.  I know a photo op when I see one – those Facebook videos are staged. And I also know that the news reporters can chose their stories.  I feel that maybe they should talk to each other in front of the cameras to keep both sides honest, but the one time that a press conference was arranged the protestors walked out after just one question.

So I’ll take it back to the one thing that both sides’ media coverage agrees on – the non stop blaring of their air horns for ten full minutes every half hour. We hear it both on the newscasts and in the Facebook videos.  That horrendous noise does not constitute a peaceful protest; that is premeditated torture.  In my mind it conjures up a picture of a bunch of bullies picking on innocent bystanders.  I’m not one to side with bullies.

By Wednesday I needed a break so I arranged to have lunch with a close friend in Brandon.  As I drove to and from the city I met a lot of trucks. The highways weren’t the best and it was incredibly cold but they were out doing their jobs – earning the hero status the guys in Ottawa honking their horns, wasting fuel, and polluting air were claiming. It felt good to know there was still a real world out there where people went about their business.

Lunch and conversation with my friend was refreshing. Among the many things we talked about was the need to take care of your own sanity.  I came home and did some serious weeding on Facebook. I hope a month long snooze will find us all in a better place.

The real clincher, though, came Friday when I found myself on the sidelines during a medical emergency. I am humbled and amazed at the dedication of that short-staffed rural hospital, overwhelmed and trying to treat two crisis patients at the same time. I can’t help thinking of the doctors and nurses in the city hospitals who work flat out like this every day as the Covid cases keep coming at them like a runaway train. I am in awe of their dedication and although it was a small thing for me to give,  I offer my full vaccination status and my mask wearing as a sign of respect for their work.

What is going on in Ottawa is no longer a demonstration, it’s an occupation.  Driving into a capital city and making everyone’s life hell to get your demands met happens in poor, third world countries, and it’s called a coup.  You can’t have that kind of turmoil and still retain the stability, education, health care, rule of law, public infrastructure, and stable economy that we take for granted in Canada.  The protestors are schoolyard bullies drunk on their five minutes of fame and those cheering them on from the sidelines are pouring fuel on a dangerous fire. There is a lot more to be lost than to be gained from this.