So, catching up….watching the video of the soldier liberating his mother’s village…F me. I will never NOT feel my heart swell swing a people liberated from oppressors/invaders. It’s in my goddamnAmerican DNA, I can’t help it. But to see a people who truly want to control their own destiny, and are actively fighting and dying for it, that’s the best of humanity, meeting the worst of humanity. And speaking of the worst, as every liberation reveals more and more war crimes, and as real-time investigations and technology reveal the perpetrators, I’m hopeful that we are about to see the largest series of war crimes prosecutions ever at The Hague. It makes me wonder how I can volunteer/help (probably not much; I looked at the issue a few years ago, and they’re looking for both foreign language skills (until we have a big Latin American war, I’m useless there) and prosecutorial experience (nope, not my field either)). But the boy is very interested in the field…perhaps some volunteer work/internships in the coming years. Of course, he’s already talked some about maybe being involved in some NGO rebuilding projects. Methinks there will be many opportunities there. I want peace for Eastern Europe. We can only have that when Putin is completely defeated, and Russian conventional military capacity is functionally destroyed. I want victory for Ukraine. I want justice for the war crimes. We are at an inflection point in history. A certain flavor of ethnonationalist authoritarianism is in vogue, and is reaching its crescendo in Russia and Hungary. A crushing defeat will not finish it off, not even close. But it may be the turning point - we may have seen it’s zenith. As we move into the next era, we will need to be deliberate about what a global worldview should mean (its pros, and its cons). But for now, humanity will need to complete this current era. It will be one of blood, and death, as it is proving to be in Ukraine. Also….someday, I would like to visit Ukraine, walk into a pub, and buy a round, or 10, for the house. Tough bastards they are, it’d be a privilege.