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SIMILARITIES: 1914 and 2014

Poetry by David Krieger on the similarities between the start of World War I and the situation in Ukraine

The countries of Europe, it is said,
stumbled into World War I, a war
no one wanted and yet, and yet…it happened.
After Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination,
it became the Great War, taking the lives
of a generation of young men too eager to fight
in the battlefield trenches.

What can we say about the confrontation
of great powers, going on at this very moment,
in Ukraine? Could the leaders of the these countries
be stumbling again, this time on a powder
keg of nuclear alliance, misunderstandings,
irrationality, false promises, political realities
and unrealities, indignation and, above all,
bravado, as always, bravado for God and country?

David Krieger

March 2014

We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.

As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.

Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.

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