At 4:30 this morning, I read an essay from my friend Michael Totten. On the Fault Line Between East and West delved into Ukraine’s precarious and unique position of being pulled between Western self-determination and whatever conquerers from the East have imposed: being overrun by Mongols in the 1300s, having a brief independence quashed by the Red Army in 1921, and in the early 1930s, as Michael wrote, “Josef Stalin, in an attempt to extinguish Ukrainian nationalism and identity once and for all, devis[ing] one of the most notorious peacetime genocides in history by using famine to murder millions.”
I loved this so much. I was recently thinking about privilege and reflected that my greatest privilege is that no man I’ve ever been fond of has ever been unkind or unloving to me. This essay has made me realize that, even with all that reflection, I took my men for granted. From my dad and brother, to my husband and late son, the men I’ve loved would all, 100%, burn the world down to protect me. This is why, I now realize, I’ve been so very moved by this coverage - especially Nancy’s - of men sending their dependents off to safety and then going back to fight a freaking army for their homes.
Wonderful Nancy, great stuff here.
I loved this so much. I was recently thinking about privilege and reflected that my greatest privilege is that no man I’ve ever been fond of has ever been unkind or unloving to me. This essay has made me realize that, even with all that reflection, I took my men for granted. From my dad and brother, to my husband and late son, the men I’ve loved would all, 100%, burn the world down to protect me. This is why, I now realize, I’ve been so very moved by this coverage - especially Nancy’s - of men sending their dependents off to safety and then going back to fight a freaking army for their homes.