Kiev

Unless you've been living under a rock or out backpacking through the wilderness you can't have missed the tragic events unfolding in the Ukraine.

It's becoming a familiar story.  People wanting to live in freedom finally reach the tipping point.  The thugs in power go too far, or the government is too repressive, or life just gets too difficult.  So they take to the streets.  They erect barricades, arm themselves with rocks, hope for solidarity among their supporters and leniency by the police who confront them.

But it's never easy or clean.  Ask the Egyptians, Libyans, Tunisians, Syrians, Czechoslovakians, Serbs, Israelis, Americans, etc, etc, etc.  So now the Ukrainians are finding out what the price of freedom is.  The images are stark.  Their beautiful city is being laid bare.  Will they be successful?  Hard to say.  There is some cause for hope as the days go by.  But there is a long way to go.

And there is one thing for sure.  They will get no support, no encouragement, no pressure on their repressive government by the beacon of freedom in the world, the United States of America.  That's because it's not our concern.  There is no threat to us.  We are leading from behind.  I guess I could see us threatening to do something if one of the geniuses in power in Washington thought there might be some relation to climate change by the killing and the repression.  Because after all, climate change is the greatest threat to us.  It's settled science you know.  Of course, it would only be a threat, a red line not to be crossed...we all know nothing would be done.