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Ukrainians are worked up for a good reason. Russia is in the slow -mo process of destroying them. Americans are worked up for reasons unknown. Not knowing what ails them is killing Americans.Ukraine can provide a clue if Americans can tolerate the discomfort of reality.

America was born of noble ideals in the midst of the most ignoble realities. European expansionism raged. America was the ideal location for implementing its most ambitious goals. People in less cultivated regions of the world could be subjugated. People in uncultivated places could even be used as currency for achieving the higher ideals for those who mattered back then, white men of at least some means.

Those men have ruled America ever since. They were in charge as former slaves were freed and women won the right to vote. They are stll in charge as they let big business technology rule their country while the world adopts their founding values. They are as venal as the Russia that invaded Ukraine.

Russia is an imperial Johnny come lately.. It failed in its mission to turn the world into an imperial communist empire. It missed the boat in populating the world with the oligarch tentacles of that failed attempt at empire. In the US, they gripped the White House to tie the land of the free into knots from sea to shining sea. Next on the agenda was Ukraine who gave the plan a plot twist.

Ukraine shocked the world with its temrity to resist Russian invasion of its land and its violation of Ukraine’s rights. By any logical measure, no surprise was warranted. Russia had staged a dress rehearsal in 2014. The results proved promising. Under the radar, an experienced Ukrained got ready for the next round.

A Ukrainian Army was assembled, comprised of recalled civilians recruited to defend the homeland. When Russia struck, Ukraine responded with spirited vengeance.

When commanded to surrender, Unkrainianian defefenders shouted “F- you” to the Russian invsers of Snake Island. When firing a mortar round at one of the infernal front lines against marauding Wagner mercenaries, Ukrainian defenders shout “welcome to Ukraine.” Caught on video, that quickly went viral, steam gathered around the tone set by the leader..

“I need ammo, not a ride,” Ukrainian President Zelensky famously replied when offered passage to safety ahead of the Kyiv offensive. In keeping with common practice as had been shown by the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, Rusxpected to easily take the capitol once the leader was in exile. The miscalculation was based on history between Russia and Ukraine.

To Russia, fertile Ukraine had always been a hillbilly relative. In that spirit, it had harnessed Ukraine into the Soviet team behind the Iron Curtain. Ukraine had won its freedom when the Soviet Communist empire went belly up. When Russia struck again in 2021, Ukraine was loaded for bear

The US, meanwhile, had suffered its first ever coup attempt the year before the Russians invaded Ukraine. That was part of a hodge podge made up of all manner of social ills all rolled into onedemic restrictions still in place clashed with hangover malaise and exuberance at freedom again fueled by Covid relief money in pockets. The culture wars weaponized by politics had Americans loaded for bear at the merest slight. Proportionality was AWOL and the biggest loser was humor along with logic..

Big crises and little had equal capacity to trigger the gun loaded for bear. Everything was dead serious, Not a joke won a chortle when the audience was loaded for bear. Worst of all, self-importance became the law of the land. It was shown up as a sham by Ukraine’s chipper reflection of American values honored under the greatest duress.

Humor is an outlet for aggression, according to the classical shrink Sigmund Freud. Self importance comes from the narcissism of isolated self-awareness. It turned nation-wide under a blustery leader during Covid quarantines. Turned against the self, aggression was self-destructive in its humor. Sarcasm and ridicule found no friends worth having. In a society loaded for bear, was a dangerous weapon elicitng the hair trigger response of retaliation. It was a nuclear weapon too dangerous to deploy. Not so in Ukraine, long denigrated by its attacker Russia.

Ukraine had a field day mocking its aggressor as it suffered heavy civilian losses under lawless attacks by Russia. Frontline soldiers fending off primitive barbarity did so with heavy hearts. Most had lost family, wives, children. When cut off from main supply lines, they fought without food or clothes until help arrived. Yet given half a chance, they grinned and gestured as they swore that the orcs would never take their homeland.

Ukraine has gathered momentum for support with its show of courage, good nature and tenacity. It has shown the world a productive use of the nergy when a nation is loaded for bear. That is a far cry from the energy produced in a nation when its leader is loaded for bear, whether Russia now or like Ukraine’s main ally the US still haunted by a former leader who was a Putin ally.

On the global stage, national personality comes through and really matters. Ukraine has proven that by its creative use of social media to showcase its talents in contrast to Russia’s crude brutality. Try as it might with stronarm tactics and fake news propaganda, Russia can’t stop its slide into ignominy in the eyes of the world. Whatever happens in Ukraine, Russia’s reputation has been damaged for generations to come. With that wide-angle lens on reality, Ukraine offers America a once in a lifetime opportinity to heal its wounded self.

The pent up aggression that now keeps America loaded for bear can be quickly discharged by helping Ukraine and the world bring a quick end to the Russian agression in Ukraine. Arm Ukraine with all the weapons it needs and Ukraine will unload on the real bear in the global room, the Russian bear keeping all the world loaded for bear.

With the Russian bear safely back in the cage it loves to begin witth, the world can get back to its real work of bridging gaps between ideals and earthly reality. The peaceable kingdom of John Lennon’s “Imagine” may be far off but democratic principles can apply. Those center on the rule of law and call for equality and resprct fot state sovereignty The principles are enshrined in the United Nations Charter, signed by all near-200 countries of the world. Aack to having fun with humor. As a soaring eagle again instead of a grizzly bear, it will appreciat s its model the US Constitution says, the ideal is not perfection but simply a “more perfect” union..

Finally, with guns loaded for target practice instead of bear, the US can go back to having fun with humor again. As a soaring eagle instead of a grizzly bear, America will apppreciate the parallel between itself and Ukraine. It will see that the fierceness of Ukraine’s fight for freedom, justice and respect on behalf of the world is as alive today as it was when America fought for those values on its own behalf.

The war in Ukraine would be a Hollywood blockbuster if not for capitalist dysfunction. The current writers strike is just one example of moneybags smothering the creativity that is its global cashcow. It is the timeless fable about the goose laying the golden egg. Greedy owners kill the goose to make a quick buck. They end up with nothing but a dead goose.

Star wars was the blockbuster made in 1978. In the movie, evil Darth Vader wanto to take over the galaxy. He kidnaps the lovely Princess Leia & holds her hostage to squash a rebellion against his Galactic Empire. Courageous Luke Skywalker teams up with wise Captain Solo . Together they recruit a lovable bunch of droids for a happy ending when they rescue Leia, help the Rebel Alliance and restore peace to the Galaxy.

The paralells are obvious. Putin considers the new Republics of the former Soviet Union to still be his empire. He kidnaps democracy and holds it hostage until Ukraine’s Zelensky teams with American Captain Biden. Together they recruit lovable allies to fight with them.

The story in Ukraine is somewhere along the timeline between beginning and end. How soon the happy ending comes about depends on how well friendly allies can coordinate efforts.

The largely volunteer Ukrainian army was assembled after the first invasion in 2014. IThe army has suffered severe losses. Volunteers from ally counties have augmented the shrinking numbers but they stay only for so long. The brutality of the assault gets to them and they leave. The Ukrainians fighting for their homeland by now go withou food, boots or equipment on the beseiged front lines where Russians attack. The generous support of allies at a distance simply doesn’t stretch far enough to counter the conscripted meat-grinder numbers of forces conscripted from other former Soviet captives.

After more than a year of savage fighting in the strategic city of Bakhmut, the ruthless mercenary Wagner group announced it was throwing in the towel. The Russian army was sidelining them. The losses weren’t worth the compensation. Instantly an equally ruthless Chechen group agreed to augment Wagner. The battle goes on because the Ukrainian Star Wars story can’t get the traction that a Hollywood blockbuster would get.

Many of the Ukrainian army volunteers returned from overseas jobs to fight for the freedom of their country. Many were Silicon Valley media experts or techies until their country needed them. They have flooded Twitter with footage of the Russian assaults. As of yet, few such videos have made it to Facebook where much of Middle America gathers for news.

Likewise, American coverage of the war in Ukraine comes off as hollow. The news industry is hampered by security and policy concerns that make news sound like the reality show format that America has already tired of. Soldiers can’t be interviewed and interviews with affected civilians within a severely limited timeframe simply don’t cut the mustard. An entire TV crew complete with make-up and scheduling talent makes it hard to convey spontaneous sincerity.

By contrast, the BBC showed up the sparcity of American news coverage in a modest documentary about the war. In consultation with governments, a small crew went along with a front line unit to capture the terror or missiles hitting near a bunker with a force that rocked the camera.

In an age of virtual reality, actual reality packs a real zinger. The Ukraine story contains hundreds of ready-made suplots that can explode into spin-offs and collaterals. Those include the cat and mouse chases of Interpol monitoring -for scams, fraud and black market activity. Moving supplies and equipment through corridors under missile attack is rife with potential for suspense..

Those are all live action stories, not heart-wrenching tear-jerkers. They center on genuine heroes involved in hair-raising action to protect their homeland. They are stories happening all over the world, waiting to be told with Hollywood clout just as soon as someone in America gathers the Ukrainian courage to stop greedy capitalists from killing the goose laying the golden eggs..

That will be ev

has the courage to stop killing the Ukraine golden goose for a few quick bucks.

Democracy has lost its meaning in a global world. At the frontier of modern civilization today, Ukraine recaps the evolution of democracy into a fortess against marauding kidnappers.

Beyond vast cultural differnces, all the world’s near 200 countries have a social order based on decorum and decent behavior. Vast variations apart, societies have higher expectations for kings than for emerging social groups

In an international arena like the United Nations, universal standards largely prevail under guidance of protocol experts. The poorest countries devote copious portions of national funds to present a best face forward in embassies and diplomatic missions.

In other words, prestige matters in a global world. Russia upended a pact of decency in the global world. Ukraine’s response has called on the world the world to take a stand on Russia’s behavior.

“We the people” is at the heart ff democracy. American society has changed dramatically since the ideal was set out by founding fathers who were slave-holders like their European forebears. Currently, democratic principles like equality are buried in the world’s petri dish for the mixing of the world’s people. In Ukraine, they are crystal clear.

The invasion of Slavic Ukraine by Slavic Russia strips away all the distractions that cloud democratic principles in a complex interconnected world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine not only violates international law at numerous levels. It is an insult at every level to the basic human decency that is the heart of the democratic ideal.

Democracy itself is absorbing regional fallout from the Russian assault on Ukraine. The invasion is a threat to the stable European democracies.. It is a political football in the racially charged US. It is a geopolitical alert for countries in Asia, Africa, the Pacific and South America. In all those areas, it is a divining rod for social values.

There seems little doubt around the world that Russia is an illegal agressor on Ukraine. The only question seems to revolve around the issue of whether Russia is justified in its aggression. That’s where the democratic right to free speech tangles with the political right of “anything goes” so as to give voters an informed choice among candidates. Those two hot potatoes are coupled with unregulated social media platforms and traditional news sources still focused on the sensational. The result is a fog that a close look at Ukraine clear away

History is a North Star for modern social clarity. In America, history seems an irrelevant encumbrance that weighs down other countries. Pre-Amerca history seems dowright nonexistent, as if the Biblical creation myth began with the New Testament. Such short sight is a handicap in a global world. It leads to a racial reckoning where critical thinking becomes a political weapon focused on the di, a eluctance to think that makes Americans vulnerable to easy solutions like conspiracy theories and political mischief. As a former Soviet republic with a large swathe of democratic hazards sidestepped, Ukraine with its courage has brought into sharp relief the basic democratic principle of simple social decency.

Ukraine has a long history with Russia that ended with Ukraine’s new lease on life when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Ukraine was on its way to democracy when the Russian bear woke from hibernation to attack the spoiler of its plans to revive a failed plan for feudalizing an increasingly prosperous world. In short, it seems Ukraine poked the Russian bear when it refused to lie down and play hapless victim to aggression.

But that step was already a sign that Ukraine could outsmart Russia. Ukraine took its big stand against Russia when conditions were right. A trial run in 2014 had shown a weak link. World leading America had needed to test its allegiance to democratic values before it could be the force to defend those values worldwide. And now as the senseless assault goes on, Ukraine shows its best defense of democracy by exposing the ridiculous futility of its opposition.

Geopolitical designs and nuclear threats aside, the Russian bear under Putin seems incensed by its come-uppance on the global stage by small-power Ukraine. It seems downright rabid at the idea that it could be beaten by a young country that was once a mere Soviet vassal.

Like all control freaks on the verge of losing a former captive, Russia is laughably irrational in pursuing its pointless destruction of Ukraine. As the senseless stalemate drags on, Russian fumbling is an increaingly stark contrast to Ukraine’s smarts, stamina and spirit. The resulis a spotlight on Russia’s true colors as a spiteful hater of those it envies.

In response to being attacked, spirited Ukrainians began to ply social media networks to showcase their valour on the battlefield. In response to that show of genuine pride, the Russian bear turned ever more grizzly. In global human terms, that makes Russia pathetic.

A mass exodus of men blocked exit roads out of Russia when the “special military exercise in Ukraine was first announced. A year later, Wagner merceneries served as cannon fodder in that deflected assault. Nevertheless, a recent recruitment campaign ran ads urging Russians to leave jobs and beome “real men” in the Russianmy. The ploy is laughable in context of Ukraine, where Ukrainian “real men” want only their real jobs back after securing the agreed-upon borders of their homeland.

Ultimately, Ukraine demonstrates in real time the value of democratic ideals that matter beyond the broad range of social values visible to all the world today. That range stretch from Afghan repression of women to the “woke” culture of LGBTQ+ rights in the West. With the plus part as the ultimate frontier now, achievemebt of a right in a society can be measured by the force needed to keep the right in place. Ukraine acieved its sovereign right to freedom in 1991 and its fight to freedom is strong enough to defy death.

The mighty United States once won its freedom in just that way. So did most of the Western democratic countries now allied in defense of Ukraine. Thatalliance is proof of the basic democratic principle that “we the people” pf the world will tolerate suppression only for so long as they stand helplesly alone. Joined with other freedom enthusiasts, “we the people” will defy the drive of power grubbers to enslave them. Ukraine shows that the defiance is heroic when the show of power is a product of arrogance.

European expansionism ended with theSecond World War. Since the, former colonies have developed and emerged to become players on the world stage. The former Soviet vassals of Eastern Europe and Central Asia were exceptions to that robust growth but they have recently been catching up. Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian lands in Dombas and Crimea seemed a reckless edict that “we the people” don’t matter. Ukraine had the courage to say “not so fast”

Ukraine’s grace under fire illumined its pride in a happy culture where fields of grain are worked by satisfied hands as music flies up to a blue sky. With its invasion, Russia seemed to declare that Ukraine had no right to that land, that such a valuable property was wasted on the light-hearted. In the democratic double-speak of despots since the founding of the United Nations after the Second World War, Russia was saying that the democratic right to wealth belonged to serious world leaders steering their people in the cutthroat pusuit of empire.

Russia is not alone in that attitude. Like-minded individuals can gain political traction in the most stable democracies. The United States itself nearly fell victim in an attempted coup by such an individual manipulating enablers. But “we the people” won out in a vibrant dynamic that keeps democracy alive like a perennial plant or a giant sequoia. That dynamic is nothing more than the equality of mutual benefit.

As Ukraine showed its might, America was reminded of it own strength long buried in the upward spiral of development to full potential. That is a social value never achieved in totalitarian regimes where “we the people” are are trimmed back to size if they prove a threat to state control. It was Ukraine who proved the value of that priceless democratic value to the world..

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Great powers can fall but only human vagary can kill democracy. Some in every democracy however strong will grow greedy beyond measure. They succeed only if the majority is unable to resist as the mighty US was about to prove when Ukraine awakened it

In the 20th century, Russia ran an inhuman experment in ruling the world. After it helped the western democracies defeat a national demagogue in Europe, the democracies repaid Russia for its help by giving it half of Europe to control. The Soviet Union behind an Iron Curtain became Russia’s lab.

As with North Korea today, the world knew little of the septics thriving in the dark behind the Curtain. The Communist Party was the State & the cental Party State of the Siviet Union installed leaders in each of the Soviet satellites. The Party State in each of those controlled every aspect of individual life from birth to death. Education, work path and even social life was assigned in line with the Soviet central plan. National plan were reinforced with the heavy hand of purges, imprisonment & disappearances. Food shortages kept populations hungry and party pets eager to move up into fatter pastures. If populations became overly restive, Soviet central sent armored tanks to help keep an order beneficial to black markets and Soviet central syphoning of every nation’s natural resources. Corruption was endemic by the time the experiment crashed 40 years after it started.

Satellite nations had not been passive victims during those 40 Soviet years. Despite purges and slaughter, people massed to rise up in protest against oppression. Hungarians rose up in 1956, the Czechs in 1968 and the Polish Solidarity movement of the 1980’s all led to the downing of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain in 1989. Two years later the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving a very ambitious hot-shot future leader smoldering with bitterness like a live ember in a doused campfire.

Vladimir Putin plotted as he fumed, his eye on a brash ustler who had started sniffing around when the constellation of satellites began wobbling. By instinct and KGB training, Putin recognized in Donald Trump the promise of a grand new anchor for the futue..

Putin gave Trump a few test runs and found him easily malleable. Even more propitious was the cavalier Trump ease with the soft American public.

Americans were bleeding hearts who’d never survive a Siberian winter, Putin had already deduced. The common-knowledge stereotype proved out during the eight years that America flirted with democratic equality under Obama. Racial utrages like the birther movement barely made a ripple in the American population at large. As the next election neared, Putin set the stage for Trump by invading Ukraine.

The rest has been a dream come true for Putin rebuilding an empire greater than the Soviet Union had ever been. Reported setbacks were triumphs from the perspective of true greatness, he made sure to convey in public. Heavy the head that wears the crown, he let the world know with a steely gaze when criticized for vanquishing opponents. He found affirmation in Trump, who had only to entertain his public to get their adulation. But when America proved more resilient than expected by defeating Trump in the next election, Putin had a moment of doubt.

No worry, Putin determined as supporters rallied to Trump’s aid. Americans really are suckers, he declared by playing cat and mouse about invading Ukraine. Then as the absurdity played out with Americans douting noy only election results but the actual fact of a coup attempted in plain sight, Putin took the next step of an all-out attack on Ukraine.

True enough, the Ukraine campaign proved more taxing than expected. Seemed even in America popularity carried less weight than the powers of the Office. But no matter, time was on his sade, Putin declared with nuclear threats & news leaks about trade deals undercutting western sanctions. All told, he was holding his own against a growing enemy alliance he finally declared with a no-holds-barred attack on the Ukrainian civilian population.

Ukraine was the fly in the ointment, Putin told the pressas he saw a parallel scenario playing out in the US a year into the campaign, Ukraine was holding its own by virtue of a multi-prong approach more potent than the Putin and Trump tactics combined. Nearly all of Russia believed the Putin version of facts. In the US, the number of the Trump faithful had not swelled an inch. Ukraine was to blame.

In the modern world, Ukraine was doing everything right. Its leader was an entertainer like the American Trump. Being European, he was more earnest and nuanced. He inspired his people to rise for the occasion in a direct and full-hearted aplomb The image of that ardor in action on the battlefield was kindled to life routinely in the world’s eye by cell phone and TV screens. The message was a drumbeat to a common human consciousness worldwide.

“Russia is a lawless brute. Russia insults us all.”

That reminder of America’s own birth was a bonding agent in the modern world. It brought together the old world and the new. It bridged the gap between the European West and the East still on the fence about a future direction. Most vexing of all, the valiant fight against oppression had opened a chink in the armor of the world’s great melting pot.

By all news accounts, it seemed the west was worried that American democracy would fail. Would that it were so, Putin proclaimed and summoned China to speed the process. And still concern redoubled as the American justice system gained traction and became reflected in the greater world until reality was undeniable.

Ukraine had touched the sweet spot in the world’s great melting pot squeezed into a pressure cooker under Trump. America then exploded beyond its container walls to help Ukraine. It became a global presence to the little people of the world wanting to share in the prosperity of their rulers. Like Ukraine and the American blacks responsible for Trump’s defeat, the world’s little people no longer knew their place.

The realization gave paude to Putin until the Biden Democracy Summit opened and the usual procession of eggheads reassured him. Lip service. They could sermonize about the virtues of democracy but it was obvious people wanted security with a strong leader like Trump. The courage of feckless Ukraine stirred American nostalgia about its early days but that didn’t unite those living there now. Except, Putin noted as Trump ranted on the TV.

Trump was right again, Putin seemed to say as he summoned aids for a briefing. Many of the prosecutors going after Trump were American blacks.

Courage, Putin scoffed as aids reminded him of the high price America had paid to free the black American basketball giant. After that, the path ahead was clear.

Ukraine reminded the affluent America of a courage grown flacid. By now, America and its western allies didn’t even know what democracy was or what its values were. But global heirarchy was firm and not soon to be changed.

American blacks were at the botom of the totem pole there, as were Africans in the global totem chain. Impatient with the fate history had handed them, they would reject the democracy that had done them wrong. They wouldn’t understand that without democracy they’d still be nowhere in the world. Thus, in a mix of angry little people, democracy would self-destruct but only if Ukraine was stopped from inspiring the west.

Such thinking may have been the impetus for the ferocity of Putin’s attack on Ukraine, which by all modern standards is senseless. Hs rage may also have been fueled by frustration. How could the western democracies be so great if they shrank back at every slight threat he made about a nuclear option?

Of course Ukraine was brave, Putin admitted when he declared Ukraine was part of Rusiia. He may even have thought of Ukraine as part of Russia in the way that American blacks were part of the US. But that thinking would have a fatal flaw.

Ukraine is an autonomous country. It has a national identity and secure borders defined according to international law. American blacks are part of the American fabric, inseparable from the rest and reaffirmed in that status through time-tested struggle

What Ukraine and American blacks have in common is the democratic value of courage. They stand up for their God-given dignity. They assert the rights they deserve and they fight for them. That inspires all the world’s little people to strive upward for their countries.

Fogarassy is the author most recently of America Votes Obama to Biden Past Trump, a kaleidoscopic view of the Trump phenomenon. Her real-life novel about Hungary under Soviet Communism Light of a Destiny Dark was reissued last year.

Once upon a time not long ago, 200 countries in the world were content to coexist. Quarrels between neighbors were left for them to work out. Outside intervention came as needed and not always advisedly. But the great era of European expansionism ended with the Second World War and a new chapter in world history began.

Democracy was a province of the lucky few in the age of the Soviet Russian Iron Curtain across Eastern Europe.. All countries signed on to the Charter of the United Nations, the global forum founded to resolve conflicts through diplomacy and prevent a nuclear melt down. Yet it’s a long and winding road from agreement to implementation.

The democratic principles in the UN Charter are modeled on those in the US Constitution. The terms of the agreement are highly malleable. Implementation of laws from global to national is a convoluted politico-legal process. Loopholes abound.

The actuall state of democracy in a country depends on the chef. Russia, for example, has the makings of democracy. Russia’s Constitution guarantees rights. As head of Russia, Putin puts in place judges who rule against anyone contesting chef Putin’s will.

That porous state of democracy is the current condition in Hungary and other backsliding states in Easterrn Europe formerly in the Soviet harness. Freedom is exciting but scary when the going gets tough. Emerging economy countries like Brazil and India are split between lively democracy and the tighter rule already in place. That uncertainty wavers back and forth as democracy unfolds on a tech united world stage. The world’s poorest countries are even more bewildered. They are preoccupied with simply existing and thus are easily swayed to either hard rule or democracy.

Unlike commonly considered in everyday usage, democracy is not a monolith. Democracy has many forms. The common bond is rule by the people, not some overbearing ruler. Western Europe has the most stable form that is mediocre economically. The US has among the most chaotic forms. Its democracy is a roller coaster driver of a booming economy. But an offshoot of the economy is the social fabric of a country. There, hard rule and democracy meet over Ukraine.

The Iron Curtain fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It is doubtful that any other than Vladimir Putin and his corrupt network wanted that grim period revived. But with the mighty Russian Army at his command, Putin installed enough leaders in neighboring countries to make a comeback starting with a lunge at Ukraine. It seems also likely that America’s Donald Trump was his ticket to success.

Writers, politicians and con artists know that it takes numerous repititions with slight changes in emphasis to get a message across. In that vein, many years passed before my mother solved a mystery for me. How had Russia taken over half of Europe?

Simple, my mother said. They installed leaders and backed them with force if needed. Her wisdom prompts a train of thought.

Donald Trump first visited the former Soviet Union in 1987, when rumblings of change were in the air. With him was his Czech wife Ivana fluent in Russian. They were scouting sites to build a Trump Tower Moscow. Putin in the KGB secret service kept an eye on Trump as he came and went during the turmoil of the Russian empire collapse. Fast forward to the modern day overlap of history in the making.

Trump was a failure in business but he excelled in headlines. Among his sensations wes the famous escalator ride announcing his campaign for president. A carpet condemnation of Mexicans was part of the media event. By then, Putin had tested the waters with Obama.

Putin first invaded Ukraine in 2014 when Barack Obama was president. He made off with a big chunk of his Ukraine prey without reprisal and Trump launched his campaign in 2015. Trump won the presidency in 2016, lost re-election in 2020 and Putin made a second grab for Ukraine in 2021, even as Trump kept the US off balance with charges of voter fraud as if the US was a developing country with armed guards at first-time voting booths.

Someday the story of Trump and Putin will be clear and democracy will live happily ever after. Then human good can continue developing. In the meantime, Ukraine is the whipping boy between two devious tyrants. As a complete surprise to some and no surprise to others, Ukraine is beating both tyrants at their own game.

Ukraine’s fight for democratic values has captured the world’s attention. All countries are watching, rich and poor, democratic or oppressed. The fierceness of determination to resist subjugation is inspiration for people all over the world. It moved American Biden to tighten the NATO democratic alliance for a cycling of aid as Ukraine shows a clever use of resources to bolster its courage on the battlefield and among its citizens..

.Surprisingly enough, America itself is now split over the direction of its future. The shakiness came on with lightning speed as all in America does. A few short years under Trump as Putin made his moves on Ukraine shook the whole world awake to democracy.

In a way, the story of Ukraine and democracy is that of sleeping beauty and the prince who wakes her. The roles may invert in a democratic pairing but one thing is clear.

The democratic strain in America woke the sleeping beauty in Ukraine and vice versa. The democratic strain is the prince that wakes democratic sleeping beauty.

That process is happening in Ukraine, the US and Europe and throughout the world. Once roused, sleeping beauty and the prince together wake the democratic kingdom on earth

A happy ever after is the result. It is rich with growth once pretenders to leadership are deposed. All that’s left to add to democracy as reframed by Ukraine are the words of American astronaut John Glenn. Godspeed.