Democracy Ablaze

It appeared those ghastly fires in EuroMajdan to be a Nation falling into ruin, civil war had begun from peaceful protests and harsh dictatorial reactions.  The Puppet Man in charge of Government allowed the strings to show, and the people- even the people who supported  Yanukovych  were appalled at his weakness.
It is true today that most Ukrainians prefer the Devil That They Know- Russia and all of her faults to the unknowns of affiliation with the West. The Orange Revolution not so far in the past that the excesses of market freedoms have been forgotten...yet, there was the protest, that grew, and was strengthened by the puny Puppet Man. The repression because he had been told to do so, the turn away from the West - because he had been told to do so, and the voices of his people that he ignored-- because he had been ordered to ignore his people.

Yulia  Tymoshenko is free and She promises to be a force, as well she should. There are many others, and as the paroxysms of birth wring and tug at the very heart of this young nation, there will be new faces and new ideas. Someone will emerge who can stand astride the divide between a too satisfied east and a too hungered west.

We have seen the chasm, the abyss in Independence Square- the brave men and women who hurled stones and bombs for freedom, put body and life in the balance- we have seen. Brave men were slaughtered like their lives did not matter- precision executions, bullets to the head, deadly snipers, high-powered rifles against stones and bottles of petrol. We watched the last gasps of life of so many, writhing in the rhythm of death by gunshot, and each one-- a child of some loving eyes, a father to a hopeful child, a brother and companion, lover of some part of today and tomorrow.

We saw the fires of Independence Square and watched piles or rubble burn to defend a dream. Today, with hope and sadness, the dream rises from scorched cobblestones and deep red stains.
Love heals the wounds of war; love binds the living truth to the fallen. There is a burden now as a nation moves forward, a fresh debt to lives given for a hope. It is sobering and it is sacred, and for the love of freedom, it is now.