PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE MESSAGE PRESIDENT’S WAR ROBERT ROSBOROUGH
In Memoriam, July 19, 1914 We aged a hundred years and this descended In just one hour, as at a stroke. The summer had been brief and now was ended; The body of the ploughed plains lay in smoke. The hushed road burst in colors then, a soaring Lament rose, ringing silver like a bell. And so I covered up my face, imploring God to destroy me before battle fell. And from my memory the shadows vanished Of songs and passions—burdens I'd not need. The Almighty bade it be—with all else banished— A book of portents terrible to read. Anna Akhmatova (Translated by Stephen Edgar)
Akhmatova’s poem seems particularly apt to how so many people feel about the world
termed an invasion, where a well-established central government breaches the territorial
right now. In an instant, the world shifts in a way that an era ends and a grim new one
integrity of another country with the intent to change the government or even to acquire
takes its place, where “the body of the
territory (and I am well aware that the U.S. is
ploughed plains lay in smoke.” While the
on this short list of invaders).
United States had been diligently telegraphing Russia’s military buildup along the
Adjusting to such a new state of affairs is not
Ukrainian borders for months, it still seemed unthinkable that Russia would actually invade. For all of the fighting that has gone on in the world in the last few decades, I can think of only a few conflicts that could be
easy. Especially when, even in highlyvaccinated Marin, we have still not fully adjusted to an only slightly less sudden invasion—that of a virus two years ago, one that changed our world profoundly and unpredictably. Wealth and science have enabled us
THE MARIN LAWYER An Official Publication of the Marin County Bar Association
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