(filmed by Regis Tremblay)
From space4peace.com:
“Many feared that there would be more violence in Odessa, Ukraine yesterday similar to what took well over 50 lives on May 2, 2014. But in fact the day was peaceful when up to 10,000 people gathered near the Trades Union Hall to place flowers and stand with the Mothers Committee in a make shift memorial. The public was blocked from having direct contact with the Trades Hall by huge numbers of local police, national security services and fully armed neo-Nazi Azov battalion members who have been incorporated into the newly formed ‘National Guard’ in Ukraine (equipped and trained by US Special Forces troops at a base in western Ukraine).” [snip]
“We next walked to the Trades Union Hall and as we approached I was overwhelmed by the huge numbers of people holding flowers heading toward the now sacred site. But we couldn’t actually get onto what is known as Kulikovo Square that fronts the Trades Hall. The entire area was sealed off and behind the plastic crime scene string of red tape were heavily armed Azov battalion members. The irony is that the neo-Nazis were now guarding the very grounds were those of their political ideology had committed the unpunished crimes of May 2, 2014. The people, including the mothers of the dead, were not allowed to lay their flowers at the scene of the crime.”
Author Bruce Gagnon described conducting interviews with a few of the thousands of people at the commemoration, one of whom, Alexander, spoke of three of his friends who’d died at the Trade Unions Hall that day, two who died from smoke inhalation, and one who’d jumped out a first-story window only to be bat-beaten to death by the same neo-Nazis who’d sealed the doors after hundreds of anti-Kiev, anti-Maidan protestors had fled from the barbarians into the building. While the Ukrainian government apparently still claims not to know how the fires inside the building started, there is ample video evidence that the neo-Nazis threw molotov cocktails through the windows. I’ve seen estimates of the dead at past 300, and many, many injured.
There were May 2 Odessa commemorations in a few other cities around the world as well. #Odessa may 2 on Twitter, including links to then live-footage, subsequent documentaries, photos, etc.
Gagnon, his friends, and others were taken to a hotel for lunch, and before they’d finished their meals, word came that they might be allowed close to the Trade Hall; they piled onto a bus, and as they entered Kulikovo Square, one of the mothers got off the bus, ran to the police lines and demanded they be allowed through the lines.
“At last the police agreed and as the bus approached the Square we saw out the right side windows a group of chanting Nazis who, when they realized who was on the bus, threw something that hit a window. Once we arrived at the Square and got off the bus we found another mass of people lined up and they created a path between them that the mothers passed thru with the international guests following closely behind.
As we passed thru this line I saw people weeping and they began chanting and we soon came upon a make shift alter full of flowers and candles. The now famous Trades Hall loomed in the near background. A banner was held up with the photos of those killed and various mothers were handed the microphone to share some words. One woman’s emotion struck me deeply and I recognized the words ‘fascist’ and at the end ‘nyet, nyet, nyet’. They released a bunch of white doves that flew towards the hall and then black balloons were set off into the clear blue sky.”
“Having spent the last two years following the illegal and immoral US-NATO war on the people in eastern Ukraine it has been an enormous honor to be here in Odessa. I will continue to do everything I can to help build resistance to what I consider to be the cynical creation of chaos inside Ukraine as a way to draw Russia into a war with the US and NATO. Being here and feeling the heartfelt pleas from the Mothers Committee makes me more determined than ever.”
May they all rest in power, and never be forgotten. And bless you and your comrades in peace, Bruce Gagnon.
‘The Odessa Massacre in Detail- An Investigation’ nsnbc.me (news network and broadcasting collective – international), May 10, 2014 has some of the grisly early-days facts and photos and videos. Please be forewarned: the images will likely burn your retinas.
‘US Ambassador to Ukraine Gives Nazis Green Light’, Saturday, April 30, 2016’, also from space4peace.com, two snippets:
“US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt on Friday made a trip to Mariupol in eastern Ukraine to praise the May 9, 2014 neo-Nazi battalion shooting of unarmed people in Mariupol.” [snip]
“The events in Mariupol, Donetsk region (when neo-Nazi Azov fighters shot at a peaceful demonstration of residents on May 9, 2014) were hailed by Pyatt as an example of the struggle against the “Russian world” for all of Donbass during his meeting with representatives of the local government.”
Well, let’s take a look at Ambassador Pyatt’s Twit account: (although many are in Ukrainian)
May 3
“Meanwhile, a vast majority of Ukrainians have little trust in the success of these reforms [he’d listed at length earlier]. Because of perceptions of corruption, the persistent power of oligarchs, incompetence, or a lack of real commitment, public support seems to be lagging behind.
At the same time, Ukraine’s international partners have mobilized their traditional instruments to support the reforms. The EU has negotiated an agreement to establish a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, which should progressively open the trade gates and spur the necessary changes in rules and norms related to all economic sectors. In parallel, the EU has provided significant financial support, with around €11 billion ($12 billion) of assistance, mostly in loans from the European Investment Bank (€3 billion) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (€5 billion). Bilateral financial assistance from many sources, such as the United States and Germany, has been brought to Ukraine with the double purpose of promoting national exports and supporting investment efforts. Private investment has also been moving in, even though private capital outflows persist for the time being.”
Yeah, the Imperium’s PTB want Ukraine in their fold, and one day: in the EU and full tilt NATO members. My guess is, because: Panama Papers, Poroshenko’s days are numbered.
@nab_ukr : INL will provide U.S.SWAT officers to train with NABU’s tactical officers on the execution of high-risk warrants @GeoffPyatt @USEmbassyKyiv
from Banderist Miller at the Kyi Post:
Russian Revanchism!!!
Extras:
‘President Poroshenko’s Problems and the Crisis of the US ‘Ukrainian Project’
Poroshenko’s succession of political setbacks reflects his regime’s unsavory history’ by Stephen F. Cohen, April 13, 2016
‘Is War With Russia Possible? The US is undermining opportunities for cooperation in Syria and Ukraine, while escalating NATO’s military presence near Russia’, by Stephen F. Cohen, May 4, 2016-05-05
‘US ‘Information War’ and the Embryonic Kerry–Lavrov Détente; Is the recent tsunami of anti-Putin news reports meant to undermine US–Russian negotiations on Syria and Ukraine? by Stephen F. Cohen
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
Irony alert: American Police State: Secret Service Controlling Journalist Access to Conventions by Arbitrary, Secretive, No Appeal Screening Process, Posted on May 6, 2016 by Yves Smith
“The latest restriction on press oversight is the first-time requirement that only journalists who pass a Secret Service screening process will be allowed to attend the Democratic and Republican conventions. Mind you, delegates and guests are free to attend. Bear in mind that these restrictions were implemented by the Obama Administration.”
Department of State Retweeted: Rick Stengel @stengel May 3: #FreethePress campaign highlights #journalists around the who need our help. What are you doing to #FreethePress?”
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
Amerika! Amerika!
Ain’t that Geoffrey Pyatt a card?
Odessa, May 2 reminds me of Kent OH May 4. Apparently in 2010, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that there were definite orders to prepare to fire and to fire. Most likely on orders from Gov. Jim Rhodes. So Ukraine goes the way of 1970s-1980s Argentina for the moment. And so we are trending ourselves.
Love that “stern impassioned stress”. Guess that was what the indigenous people noted–stern impassioned stress.
In other news, the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations have established a spirit camp near the mouth of the Cannonball River to oppose the Dakota Pipeline. I wish them well. And know that area well from four decades ago.
Back to the topic, it seems that Nuland is the point person to carry out regime change in Russia. That worked so well the last time it happened, didn’t it. And then what? On to China? India?
Too bad the US has forgotten how to effectively administer an empire. Europe is a mess.
So much folly. So much mourning.
all of it broke my heart, including seeing the photos and videos inside the trade union videos. i’d edited out at the top: ‘have a hankie ready’, reminding myself that not all would weep. and of course, my fury jousted with my heartbreak for ascendancy….
yes, good on the combined lakota nations; i wish them well, too. as you were in that area, i went to kent state, but headed to CU just ahead of the first military killings in ‘the homeland’.. (second were jackson state, of course, but who cared?™). i was back in kent for the sole time afterward on the 1st anniversary, and went to the services when i discovered they were to happen. almost too much to bear.
note: jerry casale saw the murders, and was radicalized into forming ‘devo’ with mark mothersbaugh.
i tried to edit in a few Nulandian tweets, but wordpress flipped out; dunno what’s up with this cranky software any more. pissses me off that we pay so much for it every year. capitalism. sigh.
it seems the pyatt on mariopol ‘activities’ didn’t take either, so i corrected that; sorry. but without sound, it may not be quite the same. ;-)
yes: so much folly, so much mourning. the two joust with each other for me different days, different times. at least it’s nominally spring here, with all the promises, and sometimes..the losses with gardening, green-housing, and small farming.
my best to you and miz thd, as ever.
i remember reading this when it was published, and what a convoluted tale of a massive conspiratorial cover-up it all was, and continues to be. this was very well written: by Laurel Krause (allison’s sister) and Mickey Huff’ one non-surprise:
“Even more disheartening, efforts to maintain the US government cover-up at Kent State recently went into overdrive in April 2012, when President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) formally announced a refusal to open a new probe into the wrongs of Kent State, continuing the tired 1970 tactic of referring to Kent State as a civil rights matter.”
anyhoo, a long narrative of government evil. i confess i’d forgotten the bits in which witnesses saw that it was cops who were burning down the rotc building. dayum, the photos are hard to look at. all of it happened in places where i spent large swathes of my time daily. there were always photographers on the rooves above our daily noon silent anti-war vigils outside the student union, leading us to wonder what our fbi files might have been. most folks who ever requested them were rather disappointed that they were barely worth notice. ;-)
ha. half of the documentary short: ‘In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-Evolution – Devo’ yeah, they’d been radicalized into crazy bastards, at least the two older brothers in the band. how not?
‘NATO won’t surrender if Russia nukes Warsaw – ex-US Supreme Commander’
(er….that would be wesley clark)
“This is a mean-spirited attempt to turn the issue upside down,” Lavrov told Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter daily.
“NATO military infrastructure is inching closer and closer to Russia’s borders. But when Russia takes action to ensure its security, we are told that Russia is engaging in dangerous maneuvers near NATO borders. In fact, NATO borders are getting closer to Russia, not the opposite,” the Russian FM said.
clark on twitter: ‘russia is a bigger danger than isis in syria’; ‘glad to be going out to stump for clinton’.
Russia as an enemy in fact is a bigger danger than DAESH/ISIL/ISIS anywhere ever was or likely will be. Around 2000 nuclear warheads are not to be dismissed so easily. So why is the US going out of its way to ensure that Russia, nominally neutral and especially helpful in Syria, becomes an enemy? Pure folly and free-dumb is my guess. Pepe Escobar thinks its an extension of Pipelineistan, as if oil or fossil fuels in general will much longer be a Trump card. When it’s all burned; it’s gone. Life, including war, retreats to pre-1850 standards of energy and probably standards of living.
Yes, Ukraine’s masscres make you want to cry in the same way Pinochet’s massacres in Chille and the Argentine “Disappeared” make you want to cry. In grief, frustration, and anger. But the massacre of the Medecins Sans Frotieres hospital in Kunduz just elicits anger. Wonder why that is. Clarity about who the monsters are is not the problem.
Like most flag officers since World War II, Wesley Clark is a fool.
Yes, it does look like the duopoly is going to merge in a blow-out landslide this year, financed by Wall Street. With only the casino owners and other overtly gray-market and black-market enterprises on the outs. That is, unless third-party and fourth-party folks find traction, which is difficult unless they are already positioned so. Or unless politics strips the gears of the electoral process. But that moves into a political arena in which mechanical force can rule.
It’s not hard to envision the descending portcullis of corporate feudalism with only a muffled whimper of reaction. And loud and angry cries of fealty to the corps. Not hard to envision, but not a done deal yet.
point taken about Russia’s nukes being a large danger, but not a threat, as far as we now. what makes clark so certain that their military is using nukes in exercises? cripes, even john kerry’s been forced to mumble that the west needs russia’s help with daesh, at least behind the scenes,, no?
now stephen cohen has been alarmed that the new cold war could become hot at any moment, but his is well-taken given NATO’s provocations. and it does seem that ukraine is at the epicenter of the proxy wars against russia. syria now, and pepe may be right about oil and gas pipelines being the Core War. that clark said all that mess on cnn ‘money’ seemed important, given all the hysteria that leads to higher prices per barrel, at the pump.
but on his twit account he’d also mentioned that andy card would be joining his ‘energy security partners LLC’ company, so i looked them up, and found this at desmogblog from a few days ago: ‘‘Revealed: The Powerful Network Pushing Wesley Clark’s $3.7 Billion Gas-To-Liquids Plant’ yes, the plot thickens, given the arkansas location, especially. dunno about the feasability, etc. but you will. ;-)
yes to chile, the argentine disappeared, but this we saw in nearly real time via social networking, including graham phillips, who was deported from ukraine, banned from returning for three years, tra la la. but chePasa could write narratives of what he saw from cell cameras traveling through the trade union building by flashlight light. macabre, hideous deaths, and all the while the new regime liked to pretend that there were no neo-nazi killing sprees of innocents. that’s what i’d meant.
i’m not sure i’m understanding your possible electoral outcomes, but even you mean military intervention (national guard?), boy does that give me the shivers.
p.s. i didn’t know that the hospital bombing in kunduz only elicited anger, although i’ve seen folks mention that that focus marginalized the other deaths….
there’s a problem in the US admin of empire. circa 1950, when the Marshall Plan went into effect, DOS types, spooks, politicos, military brass knew that yeah, you must have programs like Op: Gladio, but you also got to rebuild. make capitalism look attractive & viable. Ditto Japan of course.
austerity & decimation of the Ukrainian economy thru its subordination to the diktats of Western capital is also part of the plan. there is some conflict here w/ the notion of making U. a compliant, docile launching pad for provocations, incursions, etc., on Moscow.
unless the plan is just to bulldoze U. on the way to Moscow. wouldn’t put that past Obama/Nuland types.
there were likely multiple reasons that ukraine’s become such a proxy war w/ russia, including the fact that russia ‘stole crimea illegally’. but ahead of that, it seems that there were multiple reasons that western capital marched in to country, including biden’s son’s energy company, monsanto, cargill buying lots of land, i really forget all the multinationals. jp sotille found a hela lot of names. and at the same time, a number of those compromised NGOs were busy stirring things up there, and the trend was that yanokovich hadda go. he wouldn’t sign the EU/ukraine deal, which was key to (ahem) allowing U to join the EU >>> maidan, etc. will the dutch finally ratify it? the pressure might be huge. carrots, sticks.
but oh, my, on nuland’s Twit account, all they wanna talk about is how many of the corrupt officials are gone, how much less gas they’re consuming (??), and all the money coming in, as i clipped in above. it’s a very big deal to capital somehow.
but your last sentence is great. ;-)
If I’m not mistaken, Ukraine is the largest in population of the former Soviet Republics. It sits in position as a choke point to Sebastapol, Russia’s prize warm water naval base, and also contains Odessa, Russia’s former warm water naval base. There was not mistaking US intentions in sending two naval ships to sit off Sebastapol when the Maidan coup was going down. And no mistaking Russian response to that provocation with Crimea voting to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia.
Your last sentence is certainly in the view of the Kagan clan to which Nuland belongs. After January 2017, I doubt that Obama will give a thought about it. He has always seemed as the type that gets his foreign and national security policy second-hand an as “options” that he decides among. He seems to take his advisors’ as the experts. I’m not sure who is the primary advisor; he liked to play Clinton off against Biden, for example. LIkely he played Brennan off against Gates. Not sure how Ashton Carter fits into the picture now although Carter seems close to Nuland and the Kagan clan in his policy statements.
re: ‘make capitalism attractive’, jason. an afterthought. did you mean ‘if ya work hard, be innovative, and anyone can grow up to be the Queen’? (metaphorically). or: ‘i love my cell phone, my humvee, my drone, who gives a fig if we have to use children in dcr for minerals, or africom to just take it? too bad they’re not smarter…’
i’m swamped here; may not be back tonight. dream of a less fraught world?
i was thinking of the scene in 1945. the US & Britain had to do something more than rooting out commie subverters a la Gladio & Truman’s Red Scare, so “mixed economy/social democracy” was allowed, even fostered, to “make capitalism attractive,” but only as a weapon against the Rus. ditto Japan, even more so after we “lost China.” same story w/the New Deal.
how quickly all that sham is being abandoned after the fall of the USSR. do the Latvians, e.g., really think R is about to invade them? austerity measures, refugee crises arising from the fake issue of combatting terrorism, state involvement in actual terrorist events, various psy-ops against the populace (color “revolutions,” fake elections, etc.), purges & witch hunts, support for quasi- and not-so-quasi-fascists & neo-nazis, provocations against Russia to justify paranoia & militarism…anybody w/half a functioning brain cell can’t be too romantic about Europe & should recognize that Europe’s social achievements came thru its (bourgeoisie’s) penchant for colonialism, so what…give up Europe’s achievements so the elite can get a fresh taste of bear meat? of course, the proles in Europe are not just rolling over for all this. thankfully.
well i hadn’t known that it was such a concerted effort, jason, but it makes sense, but what in the US was ‘mixed economy’? the post office? it’s my understanding that fdr’s social safety net was a prize awarded to workers since the wobblies gave up their strikes during ‘the war effort’. nice formulation on ‘europe’s social and achievements having come thru the bourgeoisie’s penchant for colonialism’, too. it hadn’t occurred to me.
no, plenty of rumbles in europe by the proles, lately in rome and paris. many seem to be bucking the ttip hard; we’ll see, i guess.
i really don’t know what some of those baltic nations do believe, but looking at the wiki, latvia is fully integrated into the Eu and all related hegemonic orgs, and selling fear of russia is only too easy. in a somewhat related way, the commie club de cordeliers on twitter linked to this jaw-dropping op-ed, while noting he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ooof, i agree.
Bring AFRICOM Now – Rawlings Tells Obama
A youth activist of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Mr. Abednego Orstin Rawlings says the time has come for Africans to embrace the African Military High Command (AFRICOM).
“He has therefore asked the United States of American president Barrack Hussein Obama not to hesitate to use his maiden visit to Ghana to help push forward the agenda of establishing AFRICOM on the continent with its headquarters in Accra, Ghana.”
“…since Americans believe in justice, equality, fairness, and transparency….”
stooges in high places, like Mr. Rawlings. think tanks, ivy league schools (vel sim), ngo’s, churches & other religious orgs (RCC), foreign money determining local elections, or “freedom” meaning big local money determing elections, etc. I was just getting started! maybe this is not granular & particular enough & so kind of a cop out, but Marxist or class analysis allows one to somewhat dismiss the intentionality of an individual, group, movement, etc., based on their embrace or rejection of class struggle. and to distinguish b/n, e.g., Latvia the state & Latvia the people. (i wouldn’t say the intentionality of an individual is meaningless, just vastly overrated.) case in point: i don’t think it was the *intention* per se of New Deal farm policy to destroy the family farm, but the quasi-Stalinist collectivist/statist orientation of the program had that effect, which today is very useful, as fewer & fewer people can survive as farmers. that has political implications. anyway, the point being it doesn’t have to be “such a concerted effort,” provided actors know who’s buttering the bread and align themselves properly.
independent farmers are dangerous. sanctions against russia, inter alia, dampen the independence of farmers who make some portion of their livelihood trading w/R, in, e.g. France. maybe like a vortex, as it gets bigger, the imperial state starts sucking more & more things down, until everything just sucks.
this was a great comment, and very helpful. you “know your song well…before you start singing”, amigo. ye, those old programs continue to mess up small farming, and the Green Revolution has been catastrophic globally.
i’m going to stick up some tweets from food sovereignty ghana, as they’re fighting bill gates’, bono’s (in the past, along with the g-8), efforts at gmo-ization of all crops, and industrial agriculture in all it’s forms.
i’d disagree about individual’s intentions being as far as the largest oligarchical profiteering NGOs like clinton foundation, gates, i forget who all. i just read at another site many commenters hailing the former one, and genuflecting before…bill. gadzukes; don’t people read alternative news and views?
the bullshit factory runs 24/7.
lots of if’s and what have you’s, lots of strands to keep in the old Duder’s head. fortunately i’m adhering to a strict drug regimen….quoting the Big Lebowski, if you didn’t get that.
thanks for telling me where the quote originated; i wouldn’t have recognized it. i only saw the film for the first time a couple years ago (i know, i know…) ;-)
but i was on club cordelier’s twit account to find the ghana food security account again, and found more 24/7 bullshit from an individual who knows what he’s doing, so add to the list:
:yeah, they’re from 2015, there are earlier ones, like ‘latin american economic impact proposals’.
re: your first paragraph, yes, that was the reason kamale musavule in DCR was so appalled by obomba bringing the 10,000 africans to the US to learn: “this is what da white re-colonizers’ do to aid democracy for some™.
didn’t i go to school with inter alia? ;-)
sorry to be so scattered, but weekend chores and obligations tend to hasten my comments…and whatnot.
Interesting that there is an Abednego Oristin Rawlings on Linked In with cited firm of SEAFABED. I wonder what financial interest the supposed young activist has in the US and Africom coming to play a larger role in Africa. Cute of him to cite Kwame Nkrumah. Cute indeed. Interesting lobbying.
nice sleuthing on SEAFABED; i couldn’t find anything about it except with an extension leading to a closed facebook page. yes, adorable. pffft.
the policy of provoking/destabilizing/dismantling/destroying Russia didn’t start w/obama. the “russia invaded georgia” thing was april 2008. not to go any further back.
penetrating Europe w/GMO’s, oil/gas, “pipline-istan”, and personal/family enrichment (Biden). are also considerations. a setback (a la Crimea) doesn’t stop the program. and once again, the West is perfectly happy to support Nazis in order to poke the Bear. there are multiple objectives in Syria (re Israel, Iran, Lebanon), but one is certainly once again having rabid jihadis on R’s border, a la Afghanistan and Chechnya.
yah; “today we are al georgians” ~ john mcNutbar. come to think of it, not so very long ago i’d read an ‘independent analysis’ on who fired upon whom in that debacle…and the conclusion was that it wasn’t the russians. remembering sakaashvilli. it seemed he turned up in ukraine last year…i checked: as the mayor of odessa. kinda like ahmed chalabi: a bad penny always returns, sightly reinvented. or not.
nite.
It most recently started almost a hundred years ago with Woodrow Wilson, when the Russians overthrew the Czar (or Tsar, take your pick). The animus against Putin is from his former KGB experience; suppose some US CIA have longterm thoughts from the Soviet era that shape their views. And because Russia remains the second largest nuclear power.
THD had mentioned russia’s former port/s at odessa, and i’d meant to say that one of the big reasons i reckon bahrain was invited to establish a base at nato hq is: the US fifth fleet is stationed off the coast. never mind what happens to shia dissidents there… gotta be practical, partners in peace, and all that jazz.
yep. nothing says democracy like the 5th fleet.
lol. “and gawd bless mommy…and daddy…and the 5th fleet.”
One analysis of the new residents of Brussels makes it seem like a merger of NATO and Gulf Cooperation Council operations and in coordination with Israel. Figure out how that is going to work and who will be hurt. Hint: Turkey already is in NATO.
yes, good on the gcc/nato math; any answers to your question? and yes, turkey is in nato, but lifted the blockade on israel’s entering nato-town. significance?
roosia and china are the obvious ‘hurts’ in most nato scenarios, yes, add syria? it’s all getting so insane. big citizen rumbles in greece (further ‘austerity’ cuts) and rome, too.
So much to reflect on here in the original post, the videos therein, and comments linking to tragedy experienced in this country when students protested American imperialism in its tragic infancy, the Vietnam experience a searing, ongoing cataclysm we can’t forget. It’s like those Colorado tornadoes produced by menacing strange clouds torn by winds and a climate we now have inherited from the extravagant explosive bombardments that keep the puny in power.
I was trying to assimilate my formerly rightwing elite based transmogrificated little liberal arts alma mater into this sad march of decadence when arrived on my doorstep its latest journalistic effort complete with a cover photograph of Martin Luther King,Jr captioned “On Serving Others.” Heartbeat quickening I wondered “Have they seen the light? Have they developed a conscience at long last? Do they, the elites training future elites, feel guilty and want to make amends?”
I will let them be. I will not attack. As those peaceful Odessians I will just hold the string of my black balloon, let it go, and watch it into the sky. Let a few quotes come from the sermon I link to here – it’s his last one at the Ebenezer church, and it is a beauty:
http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_the_drum_major_instinct/
“. . . nations are caught up in the drum major instinct. ‘I must be first.’ ‘I must be supreme.’ ‘Our nation must rule the world.’ And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I am going to continue to say it to America, because I love this country too much to see the drift it has taken.
God didn’t call America to do what she’s doing in the world now. . . We’ve committed more war crimes almost than any other nation in the world and I’m going to continue to say it. And we won’t stop because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.”
I cannot imagine what MLK’s words would be today. Harsher than these, for sure, because it is worse now, not better. Far, far worse than words can tell.
oh, dear; my comment got eaten.
yes, a splendid quote, and intuitively prescient, although he never predicted *when* the arc of the moral universe would bend toward justice’. but like marx on capitalism, it’s likely he never would have imagined this iteration of the Empire’s wars of choice.
your ‘ As those peaceful Odessians I will just hold the string of my black balloon, let it go, and watch it into the sky’ made tears well in my eyes. fancy having their home language forbidden, and forced into obeisance of an even more corrupt US puppet regime populated with neo-nazis.
how fine it was that there were so many solidarity #may 2 odessa commemorations: ‘we will never forget’. i was similarly moved by the russian philharmonic playing at palmyra recently.