Ukraine Community Day at Penn

 

Prometheus Choir

Yesterday, I went Ukrainian Community Day at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia.

By the time I arrived, I could only watch the performance on a video screen in the lobby with others who arrived late.  Which made me very happy to see that the Ukraine event had filled the auditorium which has seating for more than 900.

On the wall of the lobby hung fourteen drawings under the title Etching Room 1: Safety Instructions. 

Safety Instructions is the first-ever U.S. exhibition for Kyiv-based artists Anna Khodkova and Kristina Yarosh, founders of the print studio Etchingroom1. Infused with subtle humor and sharp sarcasm, Safety Instructions is an artistic exploration into the fragility and transience of safety within the modern world. Employing diverse techniques, including etching, silkscreen and drawing, the 14 graphic works on display make their public debut in this very special exhibition.

On view through June, Safety Instructions is part of Ukraine: The Edge of Freedom, exploring the country’s stunning artistry and rich cultural history while uplifting artists calling attention to the challenges the nation has been facing.

Honor Guard: Real Military Life

 

I recently had a Red Rose Veterans Honor Guard service on a cold afternoon in Lancaster. We all arrived before our time to report. The time we gather is a half hour before the graveside ceremony begins.  

We practice the ceremony for a few minutes. We concentrate on the very precise way we fold the flag.  Then in a very military way, we wait.  This particular ceremony happened right on time. I have been to others that were delayed from a few minutes to almost an hour.  

All of us are required to leave our phones in the car, so we actually talk to each other. And we don't take selfies.  I have my phone shut off in my jacket pocket because I ride a bicycle to the ceremonies. I am the only one who has ever ridden to the ceremonies, so there are no bike rules.  

At the most recent ceremony I attended, I met another Tanker.  He is younger than I am so we trained on and served in different tanks.  But we still spent years in turrets and had a lot of fun talking about "the best job we ever had."

After I left the active duty Army at the end of1979, I grew a beard and was a civilian for almost two years.  Then I joined a reserve tank unit for three years. I was not ready to re-enlist in the active-duty Army, but 12 weekends and two weeks in the summer sounded just right, especially because I could fire tank guns at least twice a year.  

Now that I am well past any sort of military service, participating in a ceremony to honor fellow veterans a few times a month gives me a lot of joy, and just enough feeling of being back in the military. 

March for Ukraine on Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia

 

More than a thousand people gathered on the famous steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art today to support Ukraine in its war against the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about the event today. A very good article. 

The marchers lined up with three long flags forming a procession that stretched several hundred meters along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway between the art museum and the Franklin Institute.

More than Two Thousand Mark the 2nd Anniversary of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine at the Lincoln Memorial

 

Today more than two thousand people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on the Capital Mall in Washington DC to mark the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  

The event celebrated the courage and tenacity of the people ofUkraine in their struggle against Russian invasion and atrocities.  

It was clear from the signs, that while the majority of Americans, more than 70%, support Ukraine in its defense of its own nation, Trump and the cowards who worship him want to abandon Ukraine and all other American allies.  

Glory to Ukraine!!!

President's Day Standing with Ukraine at the Pennsylvania State Capital

Today I went to the Human Chain of Solidarity with Ukraine on the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capital in Harrisburg.

We stood from 5-6 p.m. facing the setting sun in the west.  The Capital dome was lit in rose and amber by the setting sun as the assembled group sang the Ukraine National Anthem.  

Many of those attending are Ukrainian, some refugees, some American citizens working help Ukraine from here.  

On Saturday and Sunday this week, many of us will be in both Washington D.C. and Philadelphia at events marking the second anniversary of  the Russian invasion.  

 

I am re-reading "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy. I am 300 pages into the 1996-page Pevear and Volokhonsky translation.

Tolstoy was a lieutenant in the Russian Army during the Crimean War (1852) and writes about war with the horror and humor of a combat veteran.

In the first war section of the book, the Russian army meets the French in Austria just after the Austrian army is smashed by Napoleon. The Russian general Kutuzov has beats Napoleon in the first battle, but is forced to retreat. One of the cavalry squadrons attacking the French includes the young cadet Nikolai Rostov.

Rostov draws his sword and rides to the attack with his squadron in his first combat action. In moments his horse is shot from under him and falls on him. Rostov's arm is bruised and possibly broken in the fall. His arm is numb. He struggles to his feet holding his limp arm. He sees French soldiers running toward him. He realizes they are going to capture of kill him. His thoughts are a swirl. He thinks, 'Everyone loves me. My mother, my sisters. My friends. How could they want to kill me. I have a happy life.'

He snaps out of the reverie and runs, escaping in trees and shrubs at the edge of the battlefield.

In that swirl of confused thought, Tolstoy captures the crazy extremes of combat. One moment the young soldier is riding to glory, the next he thinks of his mother on the point of death.

I cannot judge the veracity of the scenes in Moscow parties and dinners, but they come alive for me in the backstabbing intrigue of the powerful.

Tolstoy is amazing.

David Bentley Hart in 2011: "the devil is probably eerily similar to Donald Trump—though perhaps just a little nicer."

David Bentley Hart, Eastern Orthodox Theologian

From 2003 to 2020, the Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart wrote a column for First Things magazine.  

In 2011, Hart ended one of his columns with a comment on Donald Trump.  Hart continues to hold his low view of the former President. The essay ends with a 46-word sentence comparing The Donald to The Devil.   

By the way, First Things magazine now leads the worship of Trump for conservative Catholics.  

Here is Hart on Trump:

... Donald Trump... You know the fellow: developer, speculator, television personality, hotelier, political dilettante, conspiracy theorist, and grand croupier—the one with that canopy of hennaed hair jutting out over his eyes like a shelf of limestone.

In particular, I recalled how, back in 1993, when Trump decided he wanted to build special limousine parking lots around his Atlantic City casino and hotel, he had used all his influence to get the state of New Jersey to steal the home of an elderly widow named Vera Coking by declaring “eminent domain” over her property, as well as over a nearby pawn shop and a small family-run Italian restaurant.

She had declined to sell, having lived there for thirty-five years. Moreover, the state offered her only one-fourth what she had been offered for the same house some years before, and Trump could then buy it at a bargain rate. The affair involved the poor woman in an exhausting legal battle, which, happily, she won, with the assistance of the Institute for Justice.

How obvious it seems to me now. Cold, grasping, bleak, graceless, and dull; unctuous, sleek, pitiless, and crass; a pallid vulgarian floating through life on clouds of acrid cologne and trailed by a vanguard of fawning divorce lawyers, the devil is probably eerily similar to Donald Trump—though perhaps just a little nicer.