What he knew and others chose to ignore. Déjà vu or simply a continuum? (let’s revisit this shall we?)

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
Winston Churchill

(Winston Churchil /Casablanca, 1943)

Following the 2014 Winter Olympics hosted in Sochi, Russia–
the world was basking in the afterglow of global peace and harmony.
This collective sense of worldly kumbaya was found in the simple idea of
the competition of winter athletics.
Yet that sense of good cheer was quickly crushed when that year’s
Olympic hosts, that being Russia, boldly decided to invade neighboring
Ukraine. A sovereign nation.
And now once again, the world sits waiting and watching as a hungry ravenous bear
raises a massive deadly paw, poised to strike.
So given our times…be it 2014 or 2021, I offer this previous
post—not much seems to have changed in 7 years…

On March 21, 2014, with the sweeping act of a single pen, Valdimir Putin signed away Crimea, transforming a portion of Ukraine back to what was Soviet Russia. Changing the world map.

In 1938 Adolph Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia, with a similar sweeping act of a pen, known as the Munich Pact.
Changing the face of Europe forever.

This week, Lithuania’s president Dalia Grybauskaite, who is attending a European Council meeting of the heads of state discussing the EU’s response to the situation in Ukraine, told a BBC reporter that we, the world, are sitting on the edge of a new Cold War.

In 1946, Winston Churchill, addressing Westminster College in Missouri, introduced the world to the phrase “iron curtain” just as the Cold War was rearing its ugly head.

(Churchill surveys the ruins of chamber of The House of Commons after
a German assault of the Blitzkrieg.)

(The smiles of Uncle Joe deceive, while a wise Winston is all too keen to true motives.)

(1943 Churchill addresses a joint session of Congress urging the American allies to remain steadfast, staying the course, in their “duty to mankind”)

Within the blink of an eye and the sweeping act of a pen,
the world changed this week.
The world map shifted as a piece of the free world was unimaginably
sucked back in time.
If we, the world, choose to simply remain as mere spectators,
change will continue–history teaches us such.

Winston Churchill was the lone voice of foreboding warning alerting
the World to the true motives of first, Adolph Hitler,
then those of Joseph Stalin.
Each time, the free world chose to ignore his words.
Words which were alarming, scary, troubling.
Who wanted to think of such?
Why should anyone worry,
it’s not like this was happening in the backyard of the US or
that the island nation of Great Britain would be affected.
That was all over there, not here—
these being our thoughts as we lulled ourselves into looking the other way.
Maybe it’s all just bravado and bluff.
We just want to live our lives.
We don’t want to dwell on bad things. . .

But then the bad things happened. . .

Each time, Churchill was correct.
And each time, the world was too slow to react.

I wonder what Churchill would say after this week’s blatant act of
“what’s yours is now mine” by Valdimir Putin?
I somehow think there’s an “I told you so” out there somewhere.

May we be mindful of our continuing duty.

(and on we go…once again…over and over and over…)

to appreciate “The Few”

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill
(Taken from his speech to The House of Commons, August 20, 1940)

For any who love listening to, what those with the magic ability can do, turning the English Language into a symphony of words and sounds, there are none quite like Sir Winston Churchill. His writings continue to capture and stir imagination as his speeches still invoke the deep primal instincts that rally the weary to rise up when all appears lost, when there is nothing left to offer—his speeches are akin to Henry V’s battle cry at Agincourt or Elizabeth I’s rallying of her troops as the Spanish Armada bore down on her Island Nation.

No less was this speech, now dubbed “The Few”, a rallying point for the British people as they, alone, had bore the brunt of Hitler’s Blitzkrieg. Years before the Allies joined arms, the British people suffered night after night, onslaught upon onslaught of their Island Nation. The British people knew that it was they who stood between democracy or tyranny for an entire world. A small Island in defense of a giant monster. But hold they did—and thank God they did, for all of us who today enjoy a democratic freedom.

I am reminded of such sacrifice and heroism on such occasions as this Memorial Day Weekend–as we prepare to use this time as the official “kick off” to summer, we must all take pause and remember that it is not for Summer that we called for a Memorial Day remembrance but rather a call to offer our prayers and appreciation to those who have gone before us, who continue to go, and defend our freedoms. The freedom to travel this weekend to lakes, woods and beaches. To bask in the joy of a “3 day” weekend–to gather with friends and family simply to venture outside and feel the freedom from work, worry, and grueling schedules.

This is not the time to protest war, of which none of us want. It is rather a time to offer our thanks to the countless men and woman who, down through time, have gone to serve and defend the rights of the whole–as they are the “few”. As we crank up the grill, take the boat to the lake, sleep late on Monday, may we remember that this is simply not some granted “free time” off but there is a deeper reason for this weekend. Our “few” still are out there serving our Nation–despite our political thoughts, this is a time of appreciation and recollection–and a time to offer our thanks for the very lives many have given so that you and I may be “free”………