Having a wonderful time reminiscing about all my past travel (and other) adventures. Hope you’ll share them with me in my blog, “All Roads Led to Russia.”
I just received a news flash on Facebook that dragged me away from packing for my upcoming move:
The entire Feenstra clan — Arend, Anneesa, and the eight youngsters — are on a vacation trip to Crimea.
Arend Feenstra – On the Train to Crimea
Yes, you read that correctly. Having just recently returned from several months in Canada and the U.S. in time for spring planting season, calving season, lambing-and-shearing season, and their myriad of endless farm chores, they have once again packed their bags and left Nizhny Novgorod . . . this time to spend two hours on the train, six days in Crimea, and another two days on the return ride.
Wait . . . did he say CRIMEA??!!!
What the #%?*^%# ??!!!
Yes, that Crimea — the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula that is currently a war zone; where divers are retrieving pieces of exploded drones from the Black Sea waters; where gas is so scarce that drivers are restricted to purchasing 20 liters (just over 5 gallons) of gas at a time; and where the beautiful resorts exist side-by-side with bomb shelters.
And at the busiest time of year on the farm.
Oh . . . and Arend also mentioned something about being accompanied by “some friends,” as yet unidentified.
I am gobsmacked by this whole thing. It makes absolutely no sense. Is it another mandatory propaganda program? Is the war getting too close to Nizhny Novgorod? Where is the money coming from?
What the hell?
I guess we can only stay tuned for updates, and hope for the best. Meanwhile, it’s back to packing for me. I just had to take time to share this bombshell with you.
As I read the daily reports of man’s inhumanity to man — including the outrageous perversions of justice being committed by members of my own government — I can’t help musing on how lovely it would be if the perpetrators could be on the receiving end of their own heinous actions . . . having to live for a couple of months on minimum wage or Social Security, without medical insurance, for example.
I know that millions of people are thinking along the same lines. And it’s fascinating to know that Abraham Lincoln was way ahead of us . . . in his case, with respect to the issue of slavery, but equally applicable to today’s problems.
“Honest Abe” (1809 – 1865)
What he said was:
“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
This will be brief, because as I’ve already told the world, I’m cutting back on the writing for a few weeks to concentrate on my upcoming interstate move. But I can’t resist three quick comments on this week’s news:
Hooray for the Knicks!
Hooray for the people taking down the extraneous lettering from the Kennedy Center!
Hooray for Ukraine’s counter-attacks on Russian territory! (But please don’t hit the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.)
It’s not what you could call a vacation, R&R, or even work-related. The big news is that I am in transition — preparing to move from the great State of Georgia, where I have lived for the past six years, back to the equally great Commonwealth of Virginia, whence I came.
As I wrote on my blog’s Pages a few days ago, it’s time for this city girl to leave the peace and quiet of country living and head back to more urban surroundings, to reconnect with people I left behind and miss greatly, and to reacquaint myself with winter.
This will all take place over the next four weeks, and since I don’t move very quickly or steadily these days, it’s taking me longer than I would like to get through the sorting and packing and donating and recycling and trashing that such a move invariably entails. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave much time for writing about the daily news, or sharing the random thoughts that I’ve been tossing out into the universe for the past few years.
So I will be taking a semi-break from my daily writing routine . . . though I do intend to keep my regular Sunday vigil on behalf of Putin’s political hostages. And I’m sure I’ll be popping back in from time to time when there’s a bit of world news too juicy to ignore, or perhaps simply to let you know how the packing is coming along. It just won’t be every day. So please do keep an eye open for me.
Meanwhile, be well, be good to each other, and remember these words of wisdom (source unknown):
Tomorrow, a new milestone in the modern-day history of war will be reached. But it is an occasion to be mourned, not celebrated.
World War I — optimistically dubbed by British author H. G. Wells as “the war to end all wars” — lasted 1,568 days, between 1914 and 1918.
And today marks the 1,568th day of Russia’s war of attrition against Ukraine, beginning with the full-scale invasion of February 24, 2022. And its instigator, Vladimir Putin, continues to evade any serious hope of ending it.
Photos From Kyiv Post – June 10, 2026
As of tomorrow, Putin will have outdone Kaiser Wilhelm II. We can only hope that he is stopped long before he is able to break Adolf Hitler’s six-year record (1939 – 1945).
What person over the age of about 40 doesn’t remember this terrifying news photo of a five-year-old Cuban boy being removed from his relatives’ home in Miami, Florida, to be sent back to his father in Cuba?
Repatriating Elian Gonzalez – April 2000
His mother had tried to escape the Castro regime with Elian in November 1999, planning to join family members already living in the U.S. Those were the days when boatloads of desperate Cuban citizens risked everything to make the treacherous water crossing to Florida. Elian’s boat capsized, his mother and others drowned; but a few survived, including Elian, who was rescued by two fishermen.
He was taken in by his paternal granduncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, who wanted to keep him in the U.S. But Elian’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez Quintana, fought to have him returned home to Cuba. After a protracted legal battle between the two men, which involved both U.S. and Cuban officials, Elian was forcefully taken from his granduncle’s home by Immigration officials and returned to his father, stepmother and baby half-brother in Cuba.
Back in Cuba
Elian’s story was followed in the news for some time, showing him growing and thriving in a loving household, and being treated as something of a folk hero by the Castro regime. Eventually, of course, his story became old news, and the world (and I) lost track of Elian.
Until yesterday, that is, when his name cropped up in, of all places, a crossword puzzle. Remembering the heart-rending story of the adorable little boy, I did some checking to see what Elian has been up to over the past 26 years, and found that — as was predicted at the time of his return — he became a product of the Cuban communist regime, saying in a 2005 interview on 60 Minutes that Fidel Castro was considered “not only as a friend but as a father.” It is also reported that the following year, when Castro was unable to attend Elian’s 13th birthday party, he sent his brother Raul instead. [Wikipedia biography, as of June 9, 2026.]
Elian, now 32, joined the Young Communist Union of Cuba in June 2008, and began military school at age 15. In 2013, he described his time in the United States as “very sad times for me, which marked me for my whole life,” and blamed the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act for denying him his rights, including “the right to be together with my father, the right to keep my nationality and to remain in my cultural context.” [Id.]
Spoken like a good little communist.
Elian holds a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Matanzas, and is now an elected member of the National Assembly of People’s Power — Cuba’s supreme (and only) governmental authority.
Elian Gonzalez Today
So while the rest of the world may have forgotten about Elian Gonzalez over the years, the Cuban government did not. He received a good education, and is apparently on his way to a successful political career.
But how do you suppose Elian feels about the U.S. government today? Does he ever think that, if he had been allowed to remain with his granduncle and become an American citizen, he might now be a member of the U.S. Congress? Or, conversely, he could as easily be one of the people targeted by the Trump administration for de-naturalization?
How must he feel when he hears Donald Trump boasting about taking over his “shithole” country (Trump’s word, not mine)? What would his reaction be if he — and his fellow countrymen — were to wake up one morning and find that their homeland had just become a territory of the United States?
A Street in Havana, Cuba: Trump’s Latest Target
Granted, Cuba is a nation with enormous political, economic and social problems. But it is their country, and as far as I know, it has not been offered for sale. Threatening to take it by force is no different than what Russia has been doing to Ukraine. What Cuba needs is assistance, not forced assimilation into a different culture.
*. *. *
Seeing Elian’s name in print yesterday and being reminded of his life story has made Trump’s threats feel much more personal than merely geopolitical. And, while Trump doesn’t concern himself with such trivia as the effect of his actions on ordinary people, in reality it is all about the people.
Are the citizens of Cuba living their best life? In most cases, probably not. But would they be better off living under a Trump-led regime?
I wonder how many of my readers are old enough to remember — or have at least learned about — the infamous McCarthy Hearings of the early 1950s. I was just a kid, but I vividly recall sitting in front of our black-and-white TV, fascinated by the spectacle and simultaneously terrified at the idea that our country might be massively infiltrated by . . . GASP! . . . communists.
Army-McCarthy Hearings – 1954
Senator Joseph McCarthy’s paranoia-driven crusade did incalculable damage to the lives of countless innocent people. As the Republican Senator from Wisconsin, his party, which led the Senate, allowed him to continue the closed-door hearings of his “Red Scare” campaign because they reflected badly on the Democratic Truman administration.
But finally, on June 9, 1954, with Republican Dwight Eisenhower in the White House, the Senate — and Americans as a whole — had had quite enough of Joe McCarthy. And he sealed his own fate when he decided to take on the U.S. Army, declaring it to be “soft” on communism and opening hearings into the matter.
The attorney representing the Army was one Joseph N. Welch, who brilliantly attacked and debunked every one of McCarthy’s charges, sending the already unbalanced Senator into rage after rage. Finally, when in a moment of desperation McCarthy accused a member of Welch’s firm of being involved with an organization considered to be a “legal arm of the Communist Party,” Welch had had enough.
Staring McCarthy in the eye, he said:
“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”
– Source: “This Day In History,” History.com, June 9, 2026.
Joseph N. Welch (1890 – 1960)
Joseph McCarthy’s career ended in disgrace. Following official condemnation by the Senate for contempt against his colleagues, he managed to retain his office, but descended into alcoholism and died in 1957.
*. *. *
The United States, and the world as a whole, was a different place in 1954. There was an innate sense of decency that we had grown up with, and that had been firmly embedded in us during the recently hard-won Second World War. All it took then to bring down a hateful, destructive, egomaniacal tyrant were ten words that have become famous in the annals of our country’s illustrious history:
“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”
. . . words that we would do well to remember today.
If you saw yesterday’s post, you know that I was on my way to the podiatrist’s office to deal with a sore toe that has had me hobbling around in pain for several weeks. What I didn’t mention was that I had convinced myselfz the only cure would be amputation, and that I was doomed to spend my remaining years as a nine-toed circus attraction.
But sometimes life’s little surprises turn out to be pleasant ones.
First, yesterday had been predicted to be rainy and thunder-stormy — the most appropriate weather for a funeral or a dreaded visit to the doctor. But, while it was mostly cloudy, the rain held off and the sun occasionally peeked through . . . a truly auspicious start.
Then the friend who had referred me to this new doctor and offered to accompany me there said that she and her husband wanted to take me out to dinner after my appointment, if I was feeling up to it. Pleasant surprise #2.
Now, about the offending phalange (that’s podiatrist-speak for “toe”). It turned out that it wasn’t being devoured by a flesh-eating bacterium, or otherwise in need of being divorced from its nine siblings. Without going into boring detail, it was a simple matter of a little novocaine, a little scraping and digging (totally painless, thanks to the novocaine), and a padded bandaid to be worn for a couple of days.
Oh . . . and some really nice people, including the entire office staff and the doctor himself. Lovely surprise #3.
Then a good seafood dinner with friends, and back home with all of my lower digits intact, and absolutely pain-free even after the novocaine wore off.
Finally, for the icing on the cake, I got to spend an entire afternoon away from the news of the day. No Trump, no Russia, no China, no Iran or Cuba or Venezuela or Israel or Greenland or . . . well, no negativity at all. Just good company, and a happy toe.
It doesn’t get much better than that, so I wanted to be sure to share it with all of my friends out there.
