As Putin’s War continues in the Ukraine, more and more refugees are fleeing what is left of their homes. President Biden has agreed to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the U.S., but bureaucratic issues with visa applications at US Citizenship and Immigration Services and in Homeland Security are making it harder for refugees who arrive to be properly settled into anything like a normal situation.

4.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine, so far. Poland has taken in the vast majority of them, while others have gone to Germany and France, or other countries where the fleeing Ukrainians have family or friends, who have done a wonderful thing to help these lost souls.

I am a strong supporter of President Biden, but let’s face it, this War is a exercise in nuclear terrorism. I think the closest an American President has come to experiencing this type of nuclear terrorism previously, was when John F Kennedy and Russia had the stand off over the Cuban Missile Crisis. I will say, again that 100,000 refugees is not enough. America needs to be taking in at least five times that.

The other problem I have is that it isn’t happening fast enough. We should have opened up humanitarian routes to the United States long before this. It is the right thing to do, it’s just a day late and a dollar short.

On the other hand, Biden is moving to do it, and it will help some refugees.

Ordinary Americans can help by sending books and text books and stuffed animals to the refugees. A lot of these items, in particularly the stuffed animals which are such a comfort to children, were lost in the flight across the Ukraine border. Coloring books and crayons, games, clothes, winter pajamas — all the items we take for granted for our children can be donated through the Red Cross, UNICEF and many other local and regional refugee assistance organizations. The American Federation of Teachers, which I mentioned in my blog yesterday, is also an excellent resource.

I know that UNICEF and International Red Cross would also appreciate any moneys that people would wish to give towards medical care and food.

Namaste,

Idealisticrebel

The President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, has just completed a trip to Poland and other NATO countries, because it’s the middle of the school year. She wanted to make sure that the Ukrainian women and children who fled the War were getting what they needed

She visited a lot of refugee camps, and toured the facilities. She talked to the mothers and to children and was very pleased with what she found.

That said, over 45 million women and children and elderly persons have fled Ukraine for their lives. There’s going to be holes in the system, but from what she saw, it was very organized, very welcoming, and people were doing everything within their power, voluntarily, to help those in such abundant need.

Children who had been taking gymnastics in the Ukraine before the War were able to practice what they had already learned in their home towns there in the refugee centers. The refugee centers were comprised of rows of rows of sleeping cots, which I will say, from the photographs I saw, were all neatly maintained. I have not seen photos of any refugee centers here in America which looked that orderly and well maintained.

The women and the children get up in the morning and make their beds with a perfection that amazes me. I went to Girl Scout camp as a child, and it took a whistle-blowing senior scout to get us out of bed, let alone making the beds once we were up!

The refugee camps are divided into two sections; one for the moms, the other for children. The Polish people are generously providing therapy for the moms so that they can start to heal from the horrors they left behind, so that the moms in turn can provide better care for their children.

The mothers also are in group therapy, and they frequently start out saying “I’m okay, I’m all right, let the next lady take my turn,” only to have the next lady say “I have nothing to say”. It falls back to the first woman, who gives up her control of her emotions and begins to speak in broken sentences, accompanied by a few tears, telling her story. As her story unfolds, the tears wash down her face, and as she begins to speak, she begins to heal a little.

On the children’s side, they are playing with toys and cards. The children are eight and under. They use the dolls they are given to act out what their mothers said as they were getting ready to leave Ukraine. The children often do not realize that their daddies, brothers, uncles, cousins, probably will not come home from war, which will be another issue.

The American head of the Teachers’ Union visited some classes in progress. Teachers in America and around the world have been sending concerned messages to her about the education of the Ukrainian children. She brought with her supplies, books and stuffed animals. She said that American families have been very generous in sending these things, and that they do help the Ukrainian children.

She taught a High School class of students for about 45 minutes, and found them to be well-educated from their classes in Ukraine. One young male student in particular stood out to her. He raised his hand, and stood up tall and straight, held his head up high, and said to her “Please tell American students to be grateful for what they have. One day I had this, and the next day I didn’t.” These students had homes a month ago; nice homes and good schooling and nice lives with promiser. A month later, it is all gone.

Namaste,

Idealisticrebel

She gets forgotten during War, and often walks alone during Peace.

The Song of Solomon 2:1-6

I am the rose of Sharon,

And the lily of the valley.

As the lily among thors,

So is my love among the daughters.

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,

So is my beloved among the sons.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight,

And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

He brought me to the banqueting house,

and his banner over me was love.

Stay with me flagons, comfort me with apples

For I am sick of love.

His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand doth embrace me

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,

By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,

That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,

Till he please

The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains,

skipping upon the hills.

My beloved is like a roe or a young hart.

Behold, he standeth behind our wall,

He looketh forth at the windows,

Showing himself through the lattice.

My beloved spake, and said unto me,

“Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

For, lo, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of birds is come,

And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,

And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.

Arise, my love, my fair one and come away.

“O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,

In the secret places of the stairs,

Let me see they countenance,

Let me hear thy voice;

For sweet is thy voice,

And thy countenance is comely.”

Namaste,

Idealisticrebel

In my reading and studying about the Holocaust, I came up with images that would form in my mind that were horrific, and would comfort myself with the thought that “this cannot ever happen again. I feel so badly for the people who suffered, but it cannot ever happen again. It’s the most terrible thing that life can ever be and we cannot ever go there again.”

Growing up, my grandfather, may his memory be a blessing, would tell me that the story of the Holocaust needed to be told and retold so that it never happened again. I listened very carefully as I grew up, and I have told the story over and over. I have read chronicles and I have taken those stories into my world and shared them. People laughingly call me the Holocaust Scholar, and asked why I bothered, it was never going to happen again, and I would smile and say, “From your lips to G-d’s ears.”

Well, another millenium has arrived, one that I always pictured as refined and full of beauty and art and great new inventions; one where we would fix the environment that we have damaged to the point where the Earth is now fighting back to rid herself of this destructive creature known as Man.

Instead, in 2022, we have a War where a large country with nuclear capabilities has gone to war against a small, independent sovereign country for no legitimate reason. Putin’s War started out more or less as a genteel war, at least when compared to his War today, a mere 41 days since since his first illegal incursion into Ukraine.

There were skirmishes in the beginning, tanks shot at, stray bullets that hit civilians, and some very young Russian soldiers knocked on Ukrainian doors, asking for food. There were protests in Russia against the war, quickly stamped out by Putin’s troops. Russia was making no real inroads and whatever Putin’s plan had been, it wasn’t working.

Putin appeared to get angry — as dictators are wont to do — and suddenly we began to hear news of the war that was the kind of news that we heard about World War II.

I was horrified because we have not listened to history and we have come full circle. It had become clear that Russian troops were aiming for not just the normal targets of war — military installations, government buildings — but were deliberately aiming for civilian targets. There are stories of hospitals being bombed, orphanages, bomb shelters, even the Holocaust museum was damaged by Russian mortar fire. All of these places are far removed from what armies consider military targets. These were no “accidental strikes”. These were — and are — war crimes.

This past Sunday was another turning point. The Russians bombed a Children’s Zoo. Cages were damaged, food destroyed. Animals will have to be put down because there is not time to rehouse them before they could become a danger to civilians and military personnel alike. Animals that are critically endangered, and part of a breeding program for repopulating endangered animals, have all been destroyed thanks to Putin.

Prisoners of war, on both sides, have been exchanged. One Ukranian gentleman who told the Russians to go “F*** themselves” was one of the returned. I understand that prisoners of war are not going to treated to spa days at the Ritz, but there are internationally accepted rules of behavior for prisoners of war. Captured Ukrainian men and women alike were stripped of all clothing, not allowed to use bathroom facilities, forced to squat naked in close quarters. Their heads were shaved, and they were barely fed, and in contravention to international law

The civilians population of Ukraine has been targeted for what can only be called atrocities. Some were done on military orders, others were just committed by soldiers because they could.

One woman has told Ukrainian officials of being in her home, with her husband and child, and Russian troops came into their yard, shot her husband in front of both her and their four year old son. According to the woman, the soldiers were drunk and continued to drink whatever they could find in her home. Then, they repeatedly raped her in front of her four year old son while he wept.

Other atrocities include raping children. The proof is finding their little dead bodies with tears in the vagina and rectum, their hands tied behind them obviously after the rape, and then the children were shot. Old women are tortured, beaten, and then murdered, and branded with a swastika on their hip or thigh.

Just when you think you have heard the most awful thing possible, Russian soldiers are cutting out people’s tongues. When I read that, I got immediately nauseated and almost vomited. There is nothing human beings aren’t capable of, great beauty and compassion, and clearly great evil.

For the sake of the world, and the sake of the Ukrainian people, i pray that this war ends now.

Namaste,

Idealisticrebel

“I am Deepak Chopra, and I have translated the poems of Rumi into English for many years, now. These poems reflect the deepest longings of the human heart as it reaches for the divine. They celebrate love.

Each poetic whisper is urgent, expressing the desire that penetrates human relationships and inspires intimacy with the self, silently nurturing an affinity for the Beloved. They are not direct translations, but “moods” that we have captured as certain phrases radiated from the original Farsi, giving life to a new creation but retaining the essence of its source.” –From the Love Songs of Rumi, translated by Deepak Chopra

Bittersweet

In my hallucination

I saw my Beloved’s flower garden.

In my vertigo

In my dizziness

In my drunken haze

Whirling and dancing

Like a spinning wheel

I saw myself

As the source of existence

I was there in the beginning

and i was the spirit of love

Now I am sober

There is only the hangover

and the memory of love

and only the sorrow

I yearn for happiness

I ask for help

I want mercy

And my love says

Look at me and hear me

because I’m here just for that

I am your moon

and your moonlight too

I am your flower garden

and your water too

I have come alll this way

eager for you

without shoes or shawl

I want you to laugh

to kill all your worries

to love you

to nourish you

Oh Sweet Bitterness!

I will sooth you and heal you

I will bring you roses

I too have been covered with thorns

If you read yesterday’s blog, you will know that my mind right now is very much into Spring and everything that Spring means. Most people love Spring; not all, but most. As I look around the world, I come to Ukraine. Putin has begun a war there that in the 21st Century is hard to believe.

When I marched and picketed the Viet Nam War, we knew it was an illegal war, and we wanted it stopped then. We were sure if we stopped that war, there would be no more. We were wrong.

This time, it’s Putin’s war, and I wonder what the corpse of Hitler is thinking. There have been moments in this world that have felt so much like the Nazis are coming. That terrifies me, and I am sure that Holocaust survivors are not able to eat.

Ukrainian people have not done anything wrong, and neither had the Jews. Oh, excuse me, please, they were born Jews and not Germans, the Aryan race.

Russia thought they would walk into Ukraine and Ukranian people would roll over belly up, and say “yes, yes, make me a Russian again!” Ukrainians are independent, strong, proud people. They see no reason why they should be living under a dictator like Putin. They did not expect his actually invading their country. But, since he did, they were going to fight, and fight long and hard. Many women and children fled to Poland and then to other places where they had family or friends.

Children are waving goodbye to their fathers; wondering if they will see their favorite teachers again, or their friends. Wives are waving goodbye to their husbands at the border, because the men are going back into Ukraine to fight to the death.

The country is already fighting. There are towns in southern Ukraine that are 90% gone, burned to ash and knocked to rubble.

When Spring finally comes to Ukraine, there won’t be flowers blooming, their won’t be trees in bud, trees won’t be putting out blossoms. The ground that flowers grow in have been run over by tanks tenfold. They have been trampled by military boots. Trees have been run over by tanks, blown sky high by missiles and rockets.

When Putin’s war ends — and it will, and he will have lost — many Ukrainian people will want to go home. Whole apartment buildings will be gone. Theatres, grocery stores, libraries will be piles of ash. Flowers and trees will not exist. Putin will have taken everything from these people but their pride and their independence.

Mr. Putin, you are a war criminal and you are leading your people against and innocent country that has done nothing wrong. STOP the hate game. You will die, one day, and your people will dance in the streets, and the world will breathe a sigh of relief.

Namaste,

Idealisticrebel

And it’s Blessings

I’m so glad that I live in Western North Carolina. I’m thrilled to go outside and feel the sun on my face; to have shed a warmer winter coat a few weeks ago, and I’ve worn gloves once this winter. This is fine for a winter for me.

We were coming back from errands and we took back roads to come home, because the highway is having major construction and major slowdowns. I couldn’t get enough of the Carolina Blue skies; the forsythia in full bloom. There were crocuses blooming, and tulips budding and early daffodils were out and showing their shining faces as we drove by. It couldn’t have been sweeter if it wanted to.

Our grocery stores had out their garden areas, filled with flowers. My Southern LIving magazine came with a full page ad for Rio Dipladenia flowers, apparently available at the Home Depot. The colors are amazing shades of pink, and there’s a white version also. They are easy care, drought tolerant and non-stop blooming. The garden centers are open and you can give your eyes a total feast of color for the first time this year.

It’s also time to take out the maps and begin talking about vacation. With the gas prices where they are, for myself I will choose something close by. I’ve thought of two possible places. Other people are going to bite the gas bullet and really travel. However, since children are still getting COVID, as well as adults, I feel it’s better to save money on gas and not expose anyone in your family or circle of friends, and stay close to home.

What I don’t recommend is doing spring cleaning in this weather. Contact Merry Maids or Care.com. It’s been a long two years — cut yourself a break, because from now on, there will only be more flowers and grass to cut, and baking for the children. There will be pools to have fun in, rivers to paddle (and kayaks to buy). There will houses to redecorate, because you are different now — we’re all different now — due to the pandemic. So we decorate to show who we are now post-pandemic.

People have said they haven’t changed, but, oh, we have all changed. For better or for worse, there is change, in us, our communities, our society. So go with the change and show the world your changes.

Hello, Spring.

Namaste,

Idealisticrebel

May it continue

May the brown grass and green leaves

Thrive in color and in grace

May it Continue

May the clear air and the cumuufocirrus clouds

Be there in the sky and in each breath, always.

May it Continue

May the water made of sweet minerals and salt 

In small streams and large rivers

Flow forever and forever flow to the seas

May it Continue

May the beautiful birds of Hawaii and 

The luminous parrots of Peru fly far and fast

And may their number grow

May it Continue

May the sun shine warm and bright

And the moon give light at night — shining from shook foil

May it Continue

May the deer and elk, the antelope and the ibis

Move and migrate, leap and lope across plan and wooded plateau

May it Continue

May the whale and the dolphin and the manatee

Swim deep in dark oceans and lagoons and sing

May it Continue

May the elephants forever in families roam,

Trunk to tail, trumpeting bliss

May it Continue

May waves of warm frost linger in base and blaze 

That puts fire in the peat of loam. And let lick cry from ripe and vine.

May it Continue

May the rose climb through

The cold murmur of morning dirt

May dark mulch coax tendrils from sleep

May it Continue

May wild words come flying from green coils and

May each breath rustle through the beard of blue moss

In the sound of song

May it Continue

—Thomas Rain Crowe

For those of you who do not know, the Dalai Lama lived in Tibet. He was the ninth child born to his mother, and one day a search party came to his family’s farm, looking for the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama Thupten Gyatso, who had died at the age of 57.

The search party went far and wide, until they reached the farm of his parents. A lama disguised himself as a servant, and looked at the children to see if one would recognize him.

Despite the lama’s disguise, the young child was able to correctly identify him. The child called out, “Sera Lama, Sera Lama!” — Sera being the monastery to which the holy man — the lama — belonged.

The search party returned again, bringing with them several items that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama, along with items that did not. In each case, the child correctly chose the items which belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama. After consideration of these and other signs, the search party became convinced that Lhamo Thondup was, indeed, the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama.

Thondup was enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama in Lhasa on February 22, 1940. He began his monastic education at age of 5.

In October of 1950, an army of 80,000 from Communist China crossed over the border into Tibet. The Tibetian people practice Buddhism, and are therefore nonviolent, and had no weapons to fight the Chinese. Therefore, the Chinese were simply able to walk in and take over Tibet. Their excuse was that Tibet had, centuries ago, belonged to China. The Chinese destroyed temples, killed monks and nuns. There were occasions where they made monks rape nuns, or they would be murdered.

There were many Tibetian people murdered, and in the middle of the night, the Dalai Lama’s attendees and lamas from various temples, the Dalai Lama’s family, and the Dalai Lama himself, snuck out under black skies full of stars, over the mountains and into India.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. China does make attempts to assassinate him, but luckily for the world, they have not succeeded.

The Dalai Lama lives in Marsala, India, when he is not touring. When he is in Marsala, he meditates a minimum of 5 hours a day. He teaches. There have been groups that come to Marsala to learn from him. Richard Geer is one of his top students. The Dalai Lama believes in peace, compassion, love, forgiveness, karma, happiness and friendship.

Since his exile in India, he has become a champion of world peace and human rights everywhere, as well as being one of the world’s foremost spiritual leaders.

In 1990, I had the privilege and joy to meet the Dalai Lama. He was an amazing man. We spoke, and his energy was pure light. When I walked away, I knew something had changed.

“It is easier to meditate than to actually do something for others. Sometimes I feel that to merely meditate on compassion is to take the passive option. Our meditation should form the basis for action, for seizing the opportunity to do something. The mediator’s motivation, his sense of universal responsibility, should be expressed in deeds.” – The Dalai Lama

“Kindness is the key to peace and harmony” – The Dalai Lama

Over a million and a half Ukrainian children have crossed the border into Poland and other NATO countries surrounding Ukraine since Russia began its illegal war. Many Ukrainian children are dead. The children who were able to flee with their mothers, grandmothers, across the border are the lucky ones; yet what do the journalist show of these “lucky” children? They are terrified, confused, cold, hungry, some literally starving. The children are dehydrated. Some have walked miles to get to a train or a bus that will take them to safety.

Some were with their mothers and fathers and siblings, and their fear; then dad kissed them goodbye, told them that he loved them, kissed them and hugged them — then turned around and returned to Ukraine to protect a home his family was forced to leave.

In some cases, both parents said their goodbyes and walked back into Ukraine to fight for the sovereignty of the country they love so much, along side their neighbors and friends, and Ukrainians they have never met, yet with whom they have become one in their desire to maintain their freedom and independence.

In Poland, there are welcome centers set up at the border so that Ukrainians can feel that they are very welcomed and that they don’t have to fear for their lives any longer. There is always hot coffee waiting for them. There are huge containers filled with diapers and layette sets and blankets and bottles and nipples, warm sweaters, boots, winter coats, mittens. There are interpreters to help them find their way. For the Ukrainians with family and friends in Poland, they are put on buses to take them to the area their family live; so if grandma or great aunt is living in a particular area away from the border, they will be taken to that area. If they have no one in Poland, and don’t have a place they want to go, they will be taken to a safe place in Poland where the mothers and grandmothers can live with their children until the war is over.

One of the many heartaches are the children that are being shipped over the borders in trains, who were in hospitals, who are extremely ill, who are on IVs and strong medications. They are traveling with their mothers and nurses, and it is so important for them to get out or they will die — they may not have a fatal illness or injury, but Russia has already shown that no hospital, orphanage, school, hospice or any other place is safe from its missiles.

If you want to help, the first thing that you need to do is to pray. Pray for all Ukrainians. The second thing is that there are a lot of relief organizations on the ground in the Ukraine and in all the NATO countries surrounding Ukraine that are providing help and financial aid to the Ukrainian refuges.

There are two organizations that I know of from personal experience that I will mention as a trustworthy place to send money to get the Ukrainian people and children. The first is the International Committee of the Red Cross, who helps people with their immediate basic needs. You can reach them at www.icrc.org or www.ifrc.org for more details on their response in the Ukraine. The second is UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. UNICEF is an arm of the United Nations and will help with children’s medications, nurses, clothing, food and other urgent needs. You can contact UNICEF at www.unicef.org for more details and ways you can help.

Namaste,

idealisticrebel

---

I want to send out this prayer for Ukraine and her peoples

---

A PRAYER FOR PEACE

Send Thy Peace, O Lord, which is perfect and everlasting; that our souls may radiate peace

Send Thy Peace, O Lord, that we may think, act and speak harmoniously

Send Thy Peace, O Lord, that we may be contented and thankful for Thy bountiful gifts

Send Thy Peace, O Lord, that amidst our worldly strife we may enjoy Thy bliss

Send Thy Peace, O Lord, that we may endure all, tolerate all in the thought of Thy grace and mercy

Send Thy Peace, O Lord, that our lives may become a divine vision, and in Thy light all darkness may vanish

Send Thy Peace, O Lord, Our Father and Mother; that we Thy children on earth may all unite in one brotherhood

–Hazrat Inayat Khan

Namaste,

Idealisticrebel