What Is Freedom?

This is for the Vocal Challenge "The Moment of Freedom" to help Ukraine

I was under the impression that this competition wanted poetry, then re-read the rules and saw that it was for a story.

This is going to be my own observations on the Russia Ukraine situation with examples of what has happened in the past,

Like many situations, this is bullying on a global scale. The bully wants his way, and often lots of people don’t want to get involved, although learning lessons of the past many nations know that doing nothing will make them potential targets going forward. Appeasement is never an option with bullies. They don’t negotiate, they take and take until they fall.

Neutrality in the case of bullying actually supports the bullies, and my friends and I have been subjected to this situation on a personal level recently.

Another problem with the concept of freedom is that if freedom is total, does that give you the freedom to control others against their will?

Putin and his cohorts want control of the USA and the destruction of the European Bloc. By back door methods he got Trump installed in the USA and the Tories in the UK to implement Brexit and eventually getting his puppet Johnson at the helm to start what he hoped was the break up of Europe and NATO so that Russia will have virtually carte blanche to do what they want.

Trump was kicked out but the UK is still under Russian influence.

Putin then decided to crush Ukraine to take its mineral riches so sent his army in expecting no resistance, but the war is still going on because of the bravery of the Ukrainian people and their true leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former actor and comedian, who is the sixth and current president of Ukraine.

Thanks to his leadership Ukraine is still free, but if it falls then Finland and Sweden are next on the bully Putin’s list.

Freedom is self-determination without unreasonable outside pressure, and the Russia / Ukraine war is the worst of outside pressure.

Russia wants to subjugate Ukraine and take away its Freedom, nothing less will do for Putin.

For Freedom to exist people like Putin need to be controlled by any means necessary. Ideally this would be diplomacy but when people will not talk, if further action is not taken, the the freedom of the threatened entity is severely at risk.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is an exemplary leader and is on the front line of defending freedom for himself, The Ukraine and the world.

Freedom must be protected at all costs , although we see it denied in so many places in the world , Yemen , Palestine , China and many other places.

Too often we see people “not wanting to get involved” but that allows the oppressors to do what they want because they are not properly opposed or held to account, hence Putin threatening Finland and Sweden if they dare to join NATO.

This is perfectly encapsulated by the 1946 post-war confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

There is a longer version by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a charity established by the British government, which is as follows:

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

Concluding Thoughts On The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

The freedom of the world is at stake, nothing less. Russia is pushing the whole world into war and that must not be allowed to happen. I really don't know how this can be resolved but I hope that the world can back Volodymyr Zelenskyy and help him to come out with freedom for Ukraine.