Will The Flowers Grow Again Some Day?
An original acrylic painting
As the final hour and minutes of the year 2025 counted down in my city, celebratory gunfire
erupted, and it increased in volume and intensity as the midnight hour drew near. No doubt
the revelers were being fueled by some of the traditional alcoholic drinks which are most often
served on the last night of the year. The sporadic gunfire was expected to last for several
hours or more. But what is the point of the celebration? Do they feel like they are killing off
some of the bad luck or evil spirits or demons which have troubled them during the past twelve
months, or is it just an opportunity for them to show off the heavy fire-power of their weapons?
In the meantime, in Ukraine, parents put their children to bed that night, not knowing
whether they would all be killed in their beds, by a Russian drone crashing into their building.
And there will be no bright-light sign of hope for changes in the world, on sunrise of the first
day of the new year, because the same people will still be in charge of world events in the
year 2026, who where there in 2025, trampling on human rights and creating death and
destruction around the globe.
The majority of people in the world live in countries which are ruled by powerful
autocracies, dictatorships or military regimes. The people who are more fortunate, live in
countries where democracy flourishes. But democracies are fragile, and the autocrats are
always trying to destroy them, in order to gain increasing power for themselves. Vladimir
Putin, the autocrat/dictator of Russia, is a notorious mass-murderer who does not allow
freedom of speech or any objections to his iron-fisted rule; anyone who objects is killed.
But Putin wasn't satisfied with owning just Russia; his greed for power is unlimited. He
decided that he wanted to own Ukraine as well. So he invaded that fragile democracy
with the intention of annexing all that land into Russia. It is estimated that one hundred
an forty thousand Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the Russian invasion began,
and there have been over fifty three thousand civilian casualties with over fifteen thousand
deaths, including women and children. But Putin doesn't care how many Ukrainian people
he kills in his conquest, or how many young Russian men he sends to get killed, just to
satisfy his greed.
The Ukrainians have put up a stubborn resistance to Putin's invasion, despite being
overwhelmingly outnumbered and lacking in the proper weapons to fight back and
recover lost territory. They were doing better when our president Biden was supplying
them with an increased supply of weapons. And they might even be able to win, if
Donald Trump would do the right thing by applying strict sanctions on Russia and
giving Ukraine weapons which would match those that the Russians are using against
them. That is what should be done, but it is not, because Trump is also an autocrat. It
doesn't occur to him that Ukraine is an innocent democracy being invaded by a ruthless
tyrant; he places blame for the fighting on both sides, because he places no value on
democracy. He tried to overthrow our own democracy by force, and he would have
been convicted of that treasonous crime, if his endless court delays had not prevented
that trial from happening.
Trump wont take any proper action against his pal Putin, because they are like
two-birds-of-a-feather. Trump admires Putin because he sees him as powerful. He
simply overlooks the bloody history of Putin and any other villainous dictators or
kings who have enough wealth and power to impress him. His idea of ending the
war, would simply be to give Ukraine to Putin, without letting the Ukrainian people
have any say in there own future. The idea that the fate of the Ukrainians may rest
in the hands of someone like Trump, is a sad thought for everyone to ponder.
In the meantime, while Putin continues to kill Ukrainians, Trump has been busily
trying to destroy our democracy from the inside. He is working hard to try and
eliminate the freedom of speech, while like all typical dictators or kings, he is putting
his name and image on everything from federal buildings and monuments to coins.
He's trying to eliminate our two-party political system by making it more difficult
for Democrats to be elected, by gerrymandering some Democratic districts out of
existence, and also eliminating some voting rights. To give comfort to his racist
base of support, he is busily trying to remove our founders declaration that all men
are created equal. So, now it has become easier for a new generation of Republicans
to go around comparing major-league, black athletes to monkeys playing ball at the
zoo, and also saying how much they "love" Hitler and his idea or removing unwanted
people from the nation. To give comfort to his right-wing religious base, Trump is
continuing to support the elimination of a woman's right to chose her own best health
options, and also progressing in his efforts to eliminate equal rights for the LGBT
community. He is also trying to eliminate any progress we have made in our efforts
to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, which if left to increase, will make our
planet uninhabitable for human beings. He is more interested in personal profit
than he is in what will happen in the future.
So what does all this say about our education system, that we were so willing
to elect such a known, lying fraudster and convicted felon, to the highest office in
the country, simply because of his impossible promise that he would reduce the
cost of living,on his first day in office? How stupid have we become?
So, as I was saying, when I heard all of crazy gunfire starting, what do we have
to celebrate about the new year?
Eugene P. McNerney
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