April 2022

Amid the brutal rapes, indiscriminate killing of thousands, atrocities, cluster-bombs decimating humans & infrastructure, on 4/8/22, a rocket, with “FOR THE CHILDREN” painted on its side, killed several dozen people in an attempted exodus, at a busy train station in Eastern Ukraine. Amid that backdrop, support for Putin & his war, is soaring in Russia; Putin’s approval rating at 83 percent. How can that be? It is the propaganda which is conveyed to the Russian people, who have a 72 percent ‘negative view’ of America. We have similar propaganda machines here. As misinformation & disinformation abound in all forms of media, it falls to us individually, to care enough about our extraordinary country and about revitalizing & maintaining our democracy; to continue educating ourselves and sorting important facts from dangerous fictions; to root out the truth about issues & candidates for offices across our nation, so that we’re intentionally aware of what’s at stake. Case in point: amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 63 oppositional House Republicans on 4/5/22 voted against a ‘non-binding resolution’ reaffirming our commitment to NATO and its principles. What message does that send to Putin, his supporters, our allies, and the world?

I’ve read that it can take as few as 21 to 30 days to be deprogrammed from propaganda sources we’ve chosen to follow. Whether its FOX, OAN, or QAnon-sources, we CAN choose differently. I used to be a CNN-junkie two decades ago, then I switched to MSNBC, which is a cutting-edge news source. I urge you all to get MSNBC, watch it for a month, and see for yourselves what you believe. We have the choice to regress, ban books & subjects we don’t like, blame & discard good teachers, push LGBTQ people back into their closets, enforce bounties on abortion-seekers, let the hungry & homeless starve in our streets, to support Q-nonsense & elect under-educated Congress members to legislate regressive laws for our citizenry. OR, we can choose to elect progressive candidates, who will support more humane values, a much-needed, modern paradigm in education; more tools for helping humanity, strengthening police departments by funding addiction & mental health advocates to deal more effectively with struggling communities; to do away with the filibuster so Congress can pass a prescription-drug plan for everyone, to pass a federal voting-rights bill that surpasses the repressive election laws pushed through some GOP-run state legislatures; and to promote the rule of law while fortifying personal freedoms. We can CHOOSE to believe in the hope & promise of America, and all work toward creating “a more perfect union”. Onward, Upward; as my old FDR poster says, “FORWARD”!

Trish Forsyth Voss

I’m rebutting Thomas Mosher’s rant printed 3/19/22 in R-M: “One-world globalism is not in America’s interests, but is a priority for those who reject America’s ideas and values. Those who invalidate truth and accuracy of facts, do not want America’s patriots to see what woke liberals are doing to our country: they are the fascists!” OH MY! FOX misinforms continually! ‘Trumpers’ are really out of touch! Trump declared, “Putin is a genius & a liberator”, AFTER he invaded Ukraine. Those who are still enthrall to DJT, his lies & disinformation are stumbling under its crushing weight of ignorance & error. We must remove the Truth-deniers & Insurrection-supporters from our Congress, denouncing them & boycotting their actions everywhere. They do this country NO GOOD!

I opine that ‘One-world-globalism’ IS in most democracies’ best interests; we need to band together: in free trade, collaborating on producing clean energy, for feeding humanity. I think Globalism is part of Creator’s plan; it is the spreading of America’s best ideas & values. The Lord said, “I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. I have created them for my glory. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled.” (Isaiah 43: 6, 7 &9) The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens”, Leviticus 19: 34. Kingdoms will fall and new nations arise, but we have been instructed: to take care of widows & orphans & foreigners in our lands.

“I, wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions”, Proverbs 8: 12, could be interpreted as “Wisdom, occupied with things heavenly and eternal, also dwells with the practical tact & insight needed for the life of common men”, from biblehub.com commentaries. Such as: internet, computers, smart phones, satellites, communication-devices that connect the wide world in an instant; and vehicles, highspeed-rail, airplanes, even space travel, that might soon connect us with inter-galactic cousins. The world is shrinking. “God is working His purpose out, as year succeeds to year”, from one of my favorite hymns. “We’ll see a new remilitarized and divided Europe, but the ‘Iron Curtain’ is probably not coming back; there’s a kind of irreversible element to globalization”, wrote Charles Kupchan, Georgetown University professor, in the 3/14/22 edition of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly, “How Russia’s invasion will reshape the world”. Because we can’t put the communication-genie back in the bottle.

Trish Forsyth Voss

In 1991, newly independent Ukraine, was in possession of the 3rd largest nuclear arsenal in the world, thousands of nuclear arms, (capable of striking the continental U.S.) had been left in Ukraine by Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukraine decided to denuclearize, and in an agreement with Russia, UK, & U.S, signed the START treaty in 1991, the Lisbon Protocol in 1992, and joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, as a non-nuclear weapon state in 1994. In exchange for giving up their weaponry, Russia, U.S. & UK were signatories, guarantors, of the Budapest Memorandum, assuring Ukraine of military security should their country be threatened. In 2014, Russia decided that their country wasn’t bound by any such agreement.

The U.N. & NATO, are two organizations differing in philosophies & functions, yet try to work together. NATO, never stronger, is designed to fight, if necessary, to defend peace; the U.N. is dedicated to avoiding war in attempting to maintain peace. Putin, a Hitler-like megalomaniac, wants all of Ukraine, but won’t stop there. He envisions himself a modern-day Napoleonic-conqueror, but he’s miscalculated the world’s aghast, awakening-reaction to his brutal, unprovoked invasion & subsequent daily bombing of the Ukrainian people. So morally-outraged, European capitals have stepped up their military spending to the promised 2 percent of gross domestic product, and several countries have sent crucially needed weaponry for Ukraine’s defense. Europe has enriched & strengthened Russia, through their energy-dependence, but now wish to reduce such dependence. What sacrifices will Americans support? Approval polls for Biden are down, on 3/28, suggesting 29 percent are concerned with ending Russia/Ukraine war, while 68 percent expect Biden to magically reduce inflation & improve our economy straightaway, which shows little ‘inflation-understanding’, or resolve to make the sacrifices necessary to really stand with Ukraine.

I know from study of dream dictionaries that ‘clothing’ represents different states of consciousness, so in that metaphor, yes, President Biden has “new clothes”, an enhanced, much improved consciousness than his predecessor ever displayed; and this newer, ‘woke’ mentality is a finer fabric of consciousness that’s indeed “invisible to those who are unusually stupid” or dense, as Mr. Bulkeley recently delineated. St. Paul, centuries ago, urged an awakening as “putting off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the Spirit of your mind, that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness & true holiness” (Ephesians 4: 22-24). It behooves us to shake off the old thinking, assuming a new consciousness forthwith!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Extra info: Google: “NATO, the U.N. and the Use of Force” (www.brookings.edu). NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called North Atlantic Alliance, is an inter-governmental military alliance among 28 European countries and 2 North American countries. Established in the aftermath of WWII, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, signed April 4, 1949. Look up on history.com “This day in History 4/4/1949, NATO”, very interesting backstory; and on Wikipedia, “History of NATO”.