I'm turning 74. I'm still protesting war.
My art is on Instagram @klonskyart
Tuesday, June 14th, I turn 74.
Jesus. When did that happen?
Someone on Facebook will point out that I share a birth date with Donald Trump.
I will respond that I share a birth date with Che Guevara.
I also share my birthday with Esther Wainer, my grandmother.
Esther made it to 92. I am hoping that I inherited some of the Wainer genes.
Last year they found a cancerous tumor on my kidney and I had a bout with Covid this year.
I survived them both.
Long live the spirit of Esther Wainer.
Esther Wainer (right) and her best friend Dora on the boardwalk in Venice beach, CA.
Grandma Esther not only lived a long and active life, she was what they use to call in those days, a peacenik.
She marched for peace for as long as her legs would allow.
We had dinner with friends the other night, one of whom I have known since we were both kids in Los Angeles.
At 16 we were both members of a student peace group that called on the nuclear powers - the U.S. and the Soviet Union - to ban the bomb.
This was at a time when as students we had to regularly hide under our desks in what were known as “drop drills”.
We used to joke that the drill required us to crawl under our desk, cover our head with our hands and kiss our ass goodbye.
Anyway, this was like around 1965. We organized about 150 of our friends and marched down Wilshire Boulevard with peace signs and chants to ban the bomb.
Not a bad crowd for the time.
But of course here we are over a half century later and there are more nuclear weapons than ever and more countries that have them.
As I have written here lately, you don’t hear talk of peace much these days.
The war in Ukraine is the focus of most attention and the danger of nuclear war hangs over it like the sword of Damocles.
At the same time as we send more arms to the war zone and talk less about de-escalation, Biden adds threats of more war. This time with China over Taiwan.
I am not alone in believing that only negotiations and de-escalation can end the war in Ukraine. There will be no military victories. Not without great human cost. But like trying to ban the bomb in 1965, those who can do the talking to end the fighting, like Putin and Biden, just talk escalation.
Even though Biden now blames the escalation of the Ukraine war for this countries ruinous inflation.
The current inflation is an economic hardship for all working folks, but it has some special features for those of us who are older or retired.
Maybe somebody can remind President Biden that money spent of things that get blown up in a war are rarely good for the economy.
For the owners of the companies that make the missiles and bombers and sell the stuff of war?
Sure.
But for the rest of us? Guns just makes butter more expensive.
And gas. And eggs.
Happy birthday, Fred!
A witty friend of mine once wrote:
"I never thought I'd be protesting the same things in my 60s as I was in the 60s.'
Unless that's an unattributed quote.
You know how we seniors tend to leave things out.
Unfortunately I don’t think Vladimir Putin will respond to a peace movement or anyone.
Similarly, unfortunately Dumber Donald Drumph did not stop lying about the election even after His Hand picked attorney General Barr told him that his views and actions were/are “bullshit.”
Similarly, I do not believe that many people have succeeded in persuading Rahmbo Emanuel to do something differently, after he has dug in his heels and has a firm opinion about something.
As former Congressman Barney Frank often said, the only way to get meaningful change is to convince enough protesters to put their energy and/or money into knocking on enough doors to convince enough voters to vote the bad bastards out of office
I can only think of four options to stop the war in Ukraine.
1). Have huge peaceful demonstrations in Russia and all over the world to try to persuade Putin to end the war.
2) Convince Ukrainians to give the Donbas and Other off arts of Eastern Ukrainian to Russia if Putin tells his army to stop fighting and go home. The. Convince Putin that is what he should do.
3) help Ukrainians defend themselves and kill enough Russians on Ukrainian soil so that the Remaining Russian soldiers refuse to fight any more and go home.
3) Kill Putin or defeat Russians in an all out war.