Special Thanks on Thanksgiving
To the election workers in the US and to the Ukrainians in Ukraine for their extraordinary bravery and courage.
The Ukrainians were invaded by Putin’s army. The entire population fought back, and they are slowly regaining their own cities, communities, and countryside from the brutal occupiers albeit at enormous cost. They were able to protect their capital, Kiev, their second largest city, Kharkiv, and to recover their only regional capital, Kherson, to fall to the Russian Armed Forces. We cannot imagine the bravery of ordinary Ukrainians who have fought back by every means possible against a much larger and better armed neighbor intent on their submission or destruction, and using torture, rape, and indiscriminate killing and bombing of civilians to gain its ends. They show us all what is sometimes necessary to preserve one’s own democracy from the forces of evil right next door.
In the US, our elections are the foundations of our democracy, of the peaceful transfer of political power, of the changes so necessary and important for our nation’s economic and social progress. US election workers have been subjected to lies, misinformation, physical intimidation, threats to their lives and their families because a President disappointed by his large electoral loss mounted a fervent campaign of lies, threats, and coercion against the officials and workers responsible for American elections. State and local election workers and officials have persevered and shepherded American voters through a consequential election that many feared would be marred by and descend into political violence. We owe them a debt of enormous gratitude for their commitments to safe and fair elections.