IT'S 9:00 AM - Do you know where your children are?

     I only have an "unofficial" step daughter and a few God children. I have no idea where any of them are. I'm assuming they are all safe, happy and well-fed. Whenever I reach out with an email I never get a response. "Kids" these days don't use email. I might as well send up a smoke signal or beat on a hollow log for all the good it does. I guess no news is good news. But what about the children of Syria, Yemen, DR Congo, Somalia and Ukraine?

    At 9:00 am, to a standing ovation and the rapturous applause of the U.S. Congress, in a speech that will be known as the I Have a Need speech, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy tugged at the American heartstrings with a plea for more American support in the form of military hardware, Russian sanctions and a repetition of the desire for a no-fly-zone over the skies of Ukraine. Referencing what must have been a South Dakota secondary school's American history book, he mentioned, Pearl Harbor, 911, MLK's "I have a dream" speech and Mount Rushmore. I think we can forgive a Ukrainian leader who is trying to get a little reach around from Congress, with not knowing the shameful Indigenous backstory of Rushmore or the fact that for many black Americans the "dream" is an ongoing nightmare. Slava Ukraini!  

     Accompanying Zelenskyy's speech was a slickly produced and highly effective, screen grab video of the past three weeks of Russian inflicted carnage, highlighting bombing, bloodshed, dead bodies tossed in mass graves and the anguished cries of children. Now this is how a war should be covered! All cynicism aside, what these recent videos have shown through the uncensored, open access of media to the battlefield is the horrific toll that normal families endure when politicians, diplomats, oligarchs, moguls and despots decide to face off on the world stage. The fact that these tiny victims are white and middle class seems to carry an inordinate amount of weight with corporate media outlets. It's become a sadly predictable refrain to hear "They look like us." No matter. Repeat this paradigm globally in reportage and maybe things will change. Who's supplying the Saudis and the UAE with lethal weaponry in their proxy war in Yemen? Any guesses?   

     The powerful (mostly white men) arrive at "talks" daily. Except for the olive drab Ukrainians they are all dressed in $5000 suits, riding in Mercedes limos followed by gun-toting, ear-piece wearing security details pouring out of armored SUVs with blacked-out windows. At least they seem safe. Will today be the day they make progress? It's anybody's guess. In the meantime children die. Children die in Afghanistan. Children die in Iraq. Children die in Yemen. Children die in South Dakota, unable to get decent healthcare in the shadow of a Mount Rushmore fireworks display. Anyone with an internet connection can read this - even in Ukraine. It's 11:00 am. Do you know where your children are?