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Chatterbox: Déjà vu, and the joy it costs

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Erma Bombeck made people laugh with a syndicated column for over 30 years. She started during the Vietnam War, not an easy time to make people laugh. She published 12 books including nine best sellers and stayed with it until 1996, when cancer stopped her.
Perhaps, these days, that’s harder to do but, somewhere, there has to be that light that she would have been able to maintain. Then again, Erma truly was one of a kind and blessed are they who keep the world from despairing.
In the avalanche of notes and photos that surround my computer, in the hovel I call my office, is a picture of my father in his World War II Army uniform. He was beautiful inside and out, all of his life. Afraid of nothing, he was a man of all “seasonings,” a combination of concrete and marshmallow whip. Even in his sergeant’s stripes, his face embraces kindness and hope.
I reflect on the valor of his mother. She sent six of her seven sons off to war and only got five back, but she still managed to cry alone and live her life with dignity and joy. Like millions of mothers, loved ones, and sons around the world, they sacrificed everything to stop a madman. Now, more than ever, we ask, “… for what?” Do we have to do this all over again, with another dictator on our hands? Sure, in the interim, we’ve had others. One can only wonder when the warning system for megalomaniacal, narcissistic, madmen will be improved to the point where they will be checked before they swing.
Most of us would be fascinated with the most recognizable of these, Hitler, if we even scratched the surface of his life. The atrocities he ordered were nothing short of demonic. Even his actions short of those atrocities were hard to believe. The detail to which his brain worked was a complexity but a marvel. He prioritized self-preservation even as his war effort crashed around him; his sanctity of self and the complete and total disregard for humanity, even his own troops. The thoroughness of his attempt to erase his own familial history in hopes of creating a new story more pleasing to his ego was finite, right down to using his troops to eradicate the town where his father was conceived.
We see the similarities here, even if the personal impetus and political history differ. One can only wonder if Putin is trying to write himself into history, with infamy being as valuable to him as fame, via a war which also includes genocide. His actions mimic those of Hitler in their current genocide, attacking the most vulnerable in hospitals and schools.

Today, I spoke to a friend whose family is still in Ukraine. They are desperate for food while brave Poles try to smuggle supplies to the border. Babies are being born in cellars around the country while many families try to flee. Her family is living in their own basement, hopeful to survive the barrage of bombs.
It doesn’t seem the best military strategy, but certainly better for his opposition than taking out the strongest first. Perhaps, he is hoping to strike such fear into the meek that he can make the strong fearful enough to just crumble. A person who chooses the weakest to subjugate, intimidate, even kill, doesn’t do so because he is so strong, but because he, himself, is afraid.
Not the best military strategy, but certainly better for his opposition than taking out the strongest first. The response to such acts of gross violence is something all credible nations have plans on. It’s complicated, sure, but also predictable. That’s more reason to have implemented a different strategy. The world has been here before and that should have made this one easier to call, easier to stop, to intercept at an earlier stage. Though it seems Putin was taken aback by the sanctions imposed on his nation, one would assume he should’ve known what would come down the pike and that he was prepared. Ironically, he speaks of them as “akin to declaring war.” That clearly defines the insanity of his own acts of war.
As the world watches more of such insanity unfold on the command of yet another world famous wannabee historical tough guy, we look to our history for direction, encouragement and strength. It’s a disheartening time and more than necessary to find something to keep us from despairing … but, is it okay for anyone to be joyful in such a time?


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