A Photo That Speaks 1001 Words
Hold your nose, close your eyes, but do what you gotta do, but in November, our destiny demands a vote for Joe Biden.
The man being hugged in the photo is the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The man hugging him is a 100-year-old veteran of D-Day, one of the thousands of men who assaulted the beaches under the wilting machine fire of the German MG-42. This hero and guardian of our democracy has a message for anyone who plans to vote for Vladimir Putin’s surrogate, Donald Trump.
“Mr. Zelensky, you are my hero,” the man said, his voice trembling with a mix of respect and gratitude, before grabbing the Ukrainian president’s hand and kissing it. An honorable man himself, Zelensky immediately dropped to his knees, embarrassed that such an elderly and esteemed warrior like this D-Day veteran should kiss his hand. A human being not lost somewhere like Putin and Trump in their own cowardly and small versions of themselves as untouchable, immortal heroes, President Zelensky was clearly overcome by the emotional support from this American hero.
The echo of the distinctive ripping sound that weapon made when fired, a sound all vets recalled over the years with respectful fear, may be fading, but this man of honor and bravery recognizes a cause for which America is destined.
The America before Trump, before Reagan’s launch of the economically unfounded theory of “supply-side economics” (which states that the lower the taxes on the super-rich, the more tax revenue the government collects), before Fox News and before Christian Nationalism became acceptable, was a flawed country but one stumbling generation by generation toward a better version of itself. This man’s generation selflessly went to war to stop the very same evil, hate, and ignorance against which he and millions of others fought that now threatens to overcome our nation in the movement known as MAGA and the felon known as Donald Trump.
At this moment, the man is telling President Zelensky that he will pray for him. Look at Zelensky’s face. He understands that if America elects Donald Trump, then prayers won’t be enough. He understands that if America becomes the weak, cowardly fascist nation to which MAGA and Trump aspire, then Ukraine is doomed. I am certain that Zelensky is thinking at this moment, “Please, sir, don’t pray for me; pray that President Biden gets re-elected.”
Let us all pray or do whatever we need to do to ensure that a second D-Day isn’t necessary to free our nation from the Trump tyranny.