EPISODE 539 A PLEA FOR UKRAINE AND ITS PEOPLE
alan skeoch
march 2, 2022
War crimes! A man gone mad! A nation helpless!
Sandra and Christine in Ukrainian folk dress…with faces smiling…kidding around … getting ready to dance.
FEELING HELPLESS, MARCH 2, 2022
At my school, Parkdale Collegiate Institute, West Toronto, we always seemed to have a bunch of joyful Ukrainians. Canadians!
Very proud their mother country while at the same time sinking deep roots into Canada
When they were not in national dress it was impossible to tell the Ukrainian Canadians from the rest of us. In national dress
they exuded pride in their background. Happy kids Would that they could remain so as adults in these perilous times. They cannot..
Sandra Hryhor snd Christine Chepanoya represent the joy of our students in better times.
But here we are in the midst of a war whose horror is unimaginable. Yesterday we had a meeting at our High Park Curling club. Our league
executive of seven of which two are Canadian Ukrainians. Loren and Zenon. The shock of our times rendered them speechless. They just could not
believe what was happening in Ukraine. Deep in their eyes I felt I saw the sad knowledge that Ukraine was about to be wasted
by orders from one man. One Man! Vladimir Putin. How could this happen.? How could one man have the power of life and death
over a nation and its people? For what?
When dealing with this madness the nations of the world are quite helpless. To intervene would trigger a much larger war. That
threat made by Putin. Made to intimidate. Beyond belief. Beyond reason. But possible. I cannot
believe we could be on the threshold of World War Three. But could be. Thankfully, President Joe Biden is being careful. Insanity does
not lend itself to reason.
What can we do? How is it possible for the fate of our world to rest on the shoulders of a lunatic? I feel so helpless.
alan
The odds are that many of these Parkdale students are Ukrainian Canadians. Can you find them? No! Not possible. The face
in the bottom picture is Terry Wickstrom, a teacher of Swedish heritage. Would the world be a better place if all the peoples of
the world had representatives in this Parkdale Colleigiate crowd? I think so.