Why don't we do that? Why on May 9 we here, in the US do not send a delegation of the US WWII veterans, the Omaha Beach heroes, the Ivo - Jima warriors to the Red Square to march together with their Russian Allies in the most honorable Parade ever- the traditional Victory Parade? Why don't we here have special meetings in, say, American Legion HQs where we would play 'Farewell of the Slavic Woman' and 'Holy War' anthems together with the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'? That would be swell. But no, instead we will have Nancy Grace, Britney Spearce and ... Bush's noises about Georgia. Not even a congratulation on the anniversary. Nothing. No wonder we have a German guy writing about 'Russian Nationalism' and a 'Russian Threat'. He thinks it is his time. No wonder the Ukrainian govt calls the collaborators with Hitler the 'heroes of the resistance'. They think it is their time.
A threat? In 1945 Russia was not a threat when its armies liberated Auchwitz. In 1945 USA dropped the nuclear bomb on Hirosima and Nagasaki and USA became a threat. It has been even since. We here are a threat. They are not. We had unleashed at least two wars since Y2001 and killed at least a million people. We are certainly a threat, an unpredictable, unstable and mad force. And we have the audacity to call them dangerous? Really?
Many years ago when I was still a Russian citizen they interviewed a middle- aged lady on the streeets and asked her about Perestroika, new contacts and people from the West coming. They asked her what was she expecting from those Westerners, how would she prefer to communicate. And she answered:
-I would prefer people to come as wise friends. That means they would come first to learn and then to advise. It means they would come respectful and cautious. It means they would come to understand and work for a long-term relationship on the equal grounds.
That was Russia talking, my fellow- Americans, sending the same message of dignity to all the world it had sent many times before. And as many times before it fell on the deaf ears: the US behavior towards Russia had been a behaviour of the deceiving bully since 1990. I would say a rather myopic deceiving bully too. Not a wise friend, that's for sure.
But what the govt does the people do not have to do. And we here have a privilege to declare the opinion of our own if only it is read or heard within the site or even within our own family. That personal opinion is the primary part of our freedom, the one defined in that very Battle Hymn of the Republic, 'His truth is marching on'.
The truth is marching on. On this day of Glory and Sorrow I, a US citizen of the Russian/Jewish origin do my duty and express my everlasting gratitude to those who won the WWII- to the Russian soldiers. I drink my glass of vodka mixed with tears to the feat of those who fought and died for my freedom and the freedom of the whole Humanity. Forever thank you, Captain Ivanov, the most popular name in Russia. From the bottom of my heart: Vechnaya Slava Geroyam. The Glory of the Heroes is Eternal.
