WHENCE HENCE?

  Most people plan their lives, from everyday scheduling and career expectations to vacations and long-term happenings and various way stations along the road. Nations try to do the same, for a smooth path with no surprises is certainly best for the economy and vigor of that nation. Unfortunately, life does not always honor our requests and wishes, neither for individuals nor nations.

Certainly, the nations of the world expect violence somewhere on this planet, usually in faraway places where it seems to be endemic. Tragic, but not such a part of their lives, so they read, tsk, tsk and go about their business, according to their master plans No one, other than some prescient being, knew that there would definitely be an incursion into Ukraine by Russia. Not that Russia has not done that already, but Ukraine seemed somehow different, immune from such a violent act. 

Suddenly plans were discarded, of little use or value in the new reality of war. The real world changed, morphed into a world of nightmares and death, for individuals and nations alike. Original plans shredded, people had to cobble together new ones, vague ones, if and maybe plans, while nations suddenly found themselves standing on red lines and challenges, never thinking that this would ever truly be a reality, only a strategy for war exercises between friendly nations.

Feb. 24 to April 15 or 16, whenever this is posted, nowhere before in anybody's plans, a war of Goliath vs, David was approaching a second month anniversary, with no end in sight. Even the villain was shocked, unprepared for the vigorous, to the last man fighting of the Ukrainian people, armed forces and civilians alike. 

Nations, shocked, stood there mute, unable to make a move, could think of no rational, acceptable plan, yet they must. Gradually, they began to speak up, to send arms, but lost much of the battle by their open emphasis on their fear of a Putin gone amok, telegraphing him virtual free rein to go ahead and do whatever his evil mind conjured.

"Shock and awe" the wrong way. The world was shocked at the slaughter, at the on purpose open goal of killing off the citizens, the civilians hunkered down in basements, in public buildings as their homes were destroyed. Freezing, no aid permitted through, hungry and thirsty, they were shot as they walked to find food or get a breath of fresh air or check on a relative or friend. Slaughtered, with no rhyme, no reason, other than the glaring obvious one - the destruction of Ukraine down to the last brick and the last itty-bitty baby.

The unthinkable plan, the one which had negated, shredded, all others, became unbelievably clear, unbelievably difficult to accept. Not again. "No more" had been the motto. The motto of the people Ukrainians of the previous generation had tried to annihilate, for centuries - the Jewish nation. The pictures in the mind grew alike in reality. Mass graves. Indiscriminatory shooting. Torture. Imprisonment and death, Disappearances. Family slaughters. Mercenaries renowned for their brutality and blood lust. Woman abused. Children - gone.

The word which had been avoided, genocide, became closer, clearer to the observer, perhaps not on the same scale, on the same ''Grand" level, but still and all - a genocide, as Putin's filthy plans, revenge even, was to destroy this nation which had refused to accept its fate without challenge.

Nations now had to draw up their own new plans. Danger inched, ran, galloped, closer and closer to  them. The tiny republics and larger countries feared for their futures, the plans they had set in motion. NATO nations knew they could not stand silent, nor soothe their souls by sending antiquated arms, nor enough to counter a powerful Russia. Better and more arms, ammunitions, missiles and training,  equipment began to pour in - but was that enough?  Would  the world stand by and allow this, much as they allowed former genocides? The Jews. Tutsis, Uighurs, in Myanmar, in Yemen, wherever and all over? Had we not learned better yet, internalized wrong from right?

As corruption invaded, infected, all governments and political apparatus in the world, fewer knew of the right, of the principled, of the things that civilized nations should automatically know. We became better aware of the intertwining lines  connecting nations, the impossibility to remain neutral and unconcerned, aloof from the consequences of global actions. The trust in leaders was withdrawn or given to those who would rule over them, as the kings of old.

We now have a choice. Do we stand for the right, the principled, the honest, or do we go along, terrified of those who would enslave us, wrest all rights from us, suck the very juices of life from within us, to the point of no return? We have seen those efforts all over the world as the evil are emboldened by the weaknesses, cracks and fissures of those who should be opposing them and their plans. Even right here in America, which suffered a bout under a demented traitor eager to maintain power and the corrupt aide-de-camps who enabled him, all the better to serve their own greedy needs.

Whence, hence, do we go? What do we take with us on that journey? How do we plan yet also be prepared to change those plans if necessary? How and when will we find that sense again, that innate knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, what simply cannot be tolerated. If there is nothing we hold dear and unimpeachable, then there is nothing, no depth, no heights of evil and neglect that will not be attained.

Whence, hence are we going? Will we choose correctly, or will we allow, via neglect and apathy, for outright evil to win, to conquer it all. Then, there will be no need for plans, no wondering whence, hence do we go?