I stumbled across your recent column regarding Thanksgiving in the Ukraine and now have read this.
What compelled you to go there to begin with? You are quite courageous; Being deaf and willfully going to an oppressive country takes guts.
When reading your account of the area, the only thing my minds eye can see is gray. No color...only images in gray.
Those people must suffer a never ending depression of their souls. No joy, no hope...
That is the world in which the marxist in the WH wishes for this country.
Anyway, I’ve been totally engrossed in your writings. If you would add me to your ping list I’d greatly appreciate it.
Why I went there is explained in "afternoon with a madman".....somewhere. That story was linked here, but the original is at the link on my next comment, below.
Essentially, "affirmative action," "equal opportunity," and "disability" laws have pushed the "handicapped" onto the fringe of the job market; potential employers won't touch us with a ten-foot pole, fearing litigation and all that. Mired in a menial dead-end job, I decided if I wasn't going to have a prosperous life, I could at least have an interesting one. That is, as God is my witness, the real reason.
Of course, being single with no one dependent upon me, and no mortgage, car payments, loans, whatnot, I could take such a risk.
When reading your account of the area, the only thing my minds eye can see is gray. No color...only images in gray.
That, madam, I consider a high compliment indeed, because that is the color I tried to emphasize when writing this, and it appears that at least for one reader, I succeeded. Thank you.
Those people must suffer a never ending depression of their souls. No joy, no hope...
Of course they were suffering a depression at the time, given that everything was in civil and social disorder, the government corrupt, the-sky's-the-limit inflation, much uncertainty.
It was especially bad in the eastern half of Ukraine, the "Soviet" part, where I spent most of my time; the further one was away from Poland and the west, the greyer it was.
However, there is the tenacity of the human spirit to survive, and I was witness to that. The workers and peasants--and not so much the socialists running things--were some of the most interesting, colorful, charming, and courageous people one can hope to meet; wonderful people. One loves the people, but loathes the "system" that keeps them down.
Before I went, I was already contemptuous of socialism, but when there, actually seeing, "hearing," touching, smelling, living, and feeling things, my loathing for those who seek to create Heaven on earth increased ten, a hundred, a thousand, a million, times over.