COME FLY WITH ME

     As the war in Ukraine blasts into its second week you have to wonder how and when will this end. It's just like that goddamned pandemic. Since the those first reports of a strange virus being detected in the wet markets of Wuhan, China in January 2020 the Twenties have been a fucked up mess. Time has taken on this bizarre elasticity - sometimes stretched out in the sun - other times coiled up like a pissed-off rattlesnake. I went to re-up my thyroid medicine the other day and got into an argument with my very nice pharmacist because I thought I had plenty of time left on my script. It had already been a year. I had to apologize for my irate outburst. Where is the time going? Is it just because I'm old and only have a limited amount of it left that I feel this slippage in the space/time continuum, or does everybody feel it? And now that macho, little bantam rooster's asshole, Putin, is threatening to plunge the world into WWIII. This is not what I had in mind for my golden years in the Scoring Twenties.

    I thought the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, Trump in exile in Florida, a quashed insurrection,  and the supply chain once again putting my favorite cheddar and sour cream potato chips on the shelves portended good times ahead - the mojo back in our groove and a steady line on Ecstasy. War in Europe wasn't even in my top ten things that could go wrong. Now whitetail deer have Covid and itchy trigger fingers are hovering over red buttons all over the world. Christ almighty! Have we learned nothing as a species? I'm sorry I don't mean to get so worked up. Like the pharmacist told me. "Calm down sir. We'll have this all straightened out in no time."

    What would Gandhi and cousin Mildred do? When faced with nuclear annihilation a true pacifist or anti-war activist would call for everyone to put down their arms and settle their differences through discussion and diplomacy  - vodka not violence. But, as we all know, calling for something doesn't make it a reality. I look at pacifism as an ideological aspiration that few can attain. It's like being against capital punishment. In theory I deplore the idea of the state taking a criminal's life. But, I also realize that if one of my loved ones was a victim of a murderer I may feel differently. I would never grab my gun and fly to Ukraine (like many vets are doing) but I wouldn't hesitate to protect my own property, with lethal force if necessary. This is the dilemma between ideology and action. This is also, I'm sorry to say, a deplorable example of isolationism, an illustration of Martin Niemoller's "First they came for......."  

   I have no answers. In 1939 nobody in Europe (except Hitler) wanted another world war. Because of this reticence to be drawn into conflict on the continent, from September 1939 to June 1940 all of Europe, but Great Britain, fell to Germany. Then the Soviet Union, Italy, Japan and finally the U. S, joined in the expanding war. This may happen again. It may be unavoidable. Get ready. It's not like nuclear war hasn't been tried before. Memories are short and time is of the essence.