INSIGHT

Ukraine is a sticky political problem

By John Gierach Redstone Review

LYONS – I recently watched the State of the Union address along with – according to the Nielson Ratings – 38.2 million others, and I thought Biden gave a good, standard-issue political speech.

When you give a talk, you’re supposed to start with a joke; not necessarily a kneeslapper, just something to elicit a little laugh, which accomplishes two things at once: It relaxes everyone and, since laughter feels good, it’s the first step toward getting the audience on your side. This is so important that if your joke falls flat and you hear crickets instead of laughter, you know you’re in for a hard slog.

In a serious political speech, you’re not after laughter, but the solidarity that comes from sharing rousing emotions, so Biden naturally led with the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion. Ukraine is an ally and a young democracy – less than 30years-old to our nearly two and a half centuries – which instinctively puts us on their side. Furthermore, they’re the innocent victims as well as the underdogs in the conflict and the bravery and persistence of their defense of their country is inspirational.

There are stories of unarmed civilians taunting armed Russian troops and standing in front of their advancing tanks, while others learn to fire their recently-acquired assault rifles and make Molotov cocktails from the Internet. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is still in the capital and when he was offered an escape route famously said, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Biden invoked all that and got the standing ovation he expected, including from some if not most Republicans, because how could you not stand for that? The fact is, we all like to see ourselves in the heroism of others, even as we secretly suspect that, in a pinch, our better angels might fly off like a flock of crows at the first sign of trouble.

But Ukraine has got to be a sticky political problem for Biden. We’re unquestionably on their side, but they’re not a member of NATO. That means we’re not obliged to defend their country as if it were our own, and so we won’t. Biden has said, more than once, that there’ll be no American troops in Ukraine for the obvious reason that if we go up against Russia directly – with or without NATO – we’re in a world war with nuclear weapons on both sides.

I think I’m on the same side as most Americans on this. Half of me wants to see us ride to the rescue with trumpets blaring, while the other half wants to avoid a world war at any cost. And I say that knowing that most of us will sit comfortably watching others bear the cost on TV while we go about our daily lives and grumble about the rising price of gas.

The sanctions against Russia are said to be the severest ever leveled against a country and its leaders and they may eventually make a difference. The ruble is quickly “turning to dust” as someone put it (a ruble is now worth less than a penny) and that, along with other measures, threaten to tank the Russian economy over time.

It was also a good idea to target the oligarchs who support Putin, not because they agree with him, but because they’re as corrupt as he is and they’ve become fabulously wealthy together. With their accounts frozen and their assets being seized, they might try to talk him into withdrawing or, failing that, remove him in some creatively Russian way. They might even

be encouraged by anti-war sentiment. There have been demonstrations in dozens of cities and although public sentiment in Russia doesn’t mean what it does in a democracy, it isn’t meaningless, either. And of course, we’re helping to fortify the eastern borders of NATO countries and supplying Ukraine with weapons, drones, antiaircraft devices and funding, although it’s a valid criticism that we should have supplied Gierach them with more and done it sooner. But the likely outcome is that all those measures will punish Russia for what they’re doing, but they won’t stop them from doing it. The retired generals and other military analysts who have recently populated cable TV all agree that Ukraine can’t hold out indefinitely on their own, let alone win. The country will eventually fall, and although it’s rarely a good idea to invoke the Nazis, comparisons with Hitler and Poland and what came later are unavoidable. I think Putin’s not-so-veiled threat to use nuclear weapons was designed to keep us and NATO out of it. It’s called the mad man theory: If you can convince your opponent that you’re crazy enough to use nukes, you’ll get what you want without having to use them and deal with the consequences. So far, it’s working, and we’ll probably never know if it we’re making a smart strategic move or if we lost our nerve and sacrificed Ukraine in our own self-interest. Either way, I doubt we’ll ever feel like we made the right decision. We should feel that we understand Putin after our four years of Trump. Both aspire to unlimited power, both act only in their own self-interest, both are desperate to appear strong because they’re so weak and both are such preposterous liars that if you call them out for a lie they’ll just tell you a bigger one. More to the point, both men have such fragile egos that they’d be willing to blow up the world rather than admit to a mistake. We suspect that Putin is smarter because it was Trump who became the lap dog instead of the other way around, but neither can be trusted to do what’s best for their country. So is Putin actually crazy? Of course he is. War is an insane act and anybody who wants one is crazy by definition.

A volunteer citizen partnership with the Lyons Fire Protection District working together to:

Strengthen communication during emergencies Support neighborhood emergency preparedness Enhance relationships between our fire district, surrounding communities, and Boulder and Larimer County emergency planners.

Prepare our Neighborhoods

Create groups of people in the neighborhoods within the Lyons Fire Protection District to coordinate preparation and response to emergencies.

Communication

Create voluntary communication trees for fast information sharing in case of an emergency and place emergency radios in our neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Points of Contact

Create a system to send critical messages and updates to a Point of Contact in each neighborhood, who then communicates the messages to a team of people to share with all participating neighbors.

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Continued from Page 1 First country to give women the right to vote

LYONS – In 1893, following some 20 years of activism by suffrage campaigners, New Zealand became the first nation in the world in which women had the right to vote – beating Canada and the US by a quarter century.

Harriet Tubman led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom

LYONS – Harriet Tubman, was born Araminta Ross, in 1820 in Dorchester county, Maryland. She died March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York. She was an American bondwoman who escaped from slavery in the South to become a leading abolitionist before the American Civil War. She led dozens of enslaved people to freedom in the North along the route of the Underground Railroad – an elaborate secret network of safe houses organized for that purpose. Born into slavery, Araminta Ross later adopted her mother’s first name, Harriet. At about age 5 she was first hired out to work, initially serving as a nursemaid and later as a field hand, a cook, and a woodcutter. When she was about 12 years old she reportedly refused to help an overseer punish another enslaved person, and she suffered a severe head injury when he threw an iron weight that accidentally struck her. She subsequently suffered seizures throughout her life. In about 1844 she married John Tubman, a free Black man.

LYONS NEWS Lyons After Prom at Oskar Blues

LYONS – The Lyons High School After Prom is going to be a fun-filled event open to all ticket-holding LHS juniors and seniors, at Oskar Blues, 303 Main St., from 11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. on April 2. The committee is busy planning and will be providing food, drinks, games, and prizes. We are currently accepting cash donations to help fund this event as well as accepting donated prizes, such as gift cards to local restaurants and shops, movie tickets, etc. Smaller gift donations can be made at the school’s front office. Cash donations are accepted at the Lyons Booster Club’s donation webpage. If you would like to donate larger items or have any questions, please contact Lisa Rickman at rickman_lisa@yahoo.com.

Candidate Janice Marchman holds an open house

LYONS – Janice Marchman, Democratic State Senate candidate for SD15, is hosting town halls monthly across the district. Marchman is running in the newly formed state senate district, which is currently represented by a Republican. The brand new Senate District goes from the Wyoming border to the northern JeffCo border and is based in Loveland.

Marchman held her first town hall last month in Lyons. She will be at the Lyons Regional Library on the last Tuesday of each month from 3:30 to 5 p.m. This is your oppor-

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