Alexei Navalny: An Outsider's Perspective
Until CNN ran their story on Alexei, I did not know much about him. As informed as I would like to be about the world, there are just certain areas, places, and people that did not make it into my daily lexicon. However, in Navalny's story, I saw something deeper than a political struggle, something deeper than a foreign way of thinking; instead, a martyr in the making. He was someone destined to make a statement greater than what Putin could suppress. You could poison him, and he would not give up. You could imprison him, and he would still not give up. You could kill him, and yet it would only make him stronger. Putin has failed. He thinks he has won, but this will be his undoing. Not Ukraine, not the bullish attitude against the United Nations, not his unrivaled sham of an election. He will fail because, in Navalny, there was someone he could not beat. Putin - You cannot beat a person whose will is stronger than yours. You may have won a deranged battle, but you are a weak, exhausted man, slowly dying on your false throne. The world has you marked.
No, I did not know Navalny. I did not really know his politics. I did not understand the power dynamics of an aged culture such as Russia. I do not know the realities of the people there, or their conflicts that on a daily basis devolve into people versus government, families perhaps pitted against families, nor do I know of bread lines, or old Soviet ways. I have never lived it. I do not pretend to understand it, but I do intend to recognize a man who gave everything to prove a point. I am sorry for the losses in Ukraine. I am sorry for the losses across the globe. In Israel and Palestine, in China the same. Here in the USA, when George Floyd died, here where children are often gunned down in the streets by their own; all of it is a loss.
Our responsibility lies in listening to those that tell, and in remembering those that were lost, trying to understand and find common ground where and when possible, but in the end, standing up for what is right and what is wrong. We are sometimes confused. It is okay; we cannot be expected to understand something so complex, but we can try to learn and be placed within the shoes of those impacted. I am on guard for Ukraine, personally. I am on guard against Russia. I am on guard against a government here that would take my rights away to protect and provide, and I am on guard for wars on other's soil, as well as my own. I believe that was what Alexei did, as a lawyer, as a politician, as a husband, as a father, and as a martyr. He was a great man for this. His loss a tragedy, and perhaps I do not know the whole story, and perhaps I can be criticized for what I say. That is okay too. What I know, is that this is something that affects us all, and it will set the stage for the next great battle against the evil that is Putin. He is the greatest oppressor of the region, caring not for the people, caring only for himself. With him will live and die a version of terrible that should be understood, such that it may be destroyed, and held at bay for as long as possible. My deepest respects go out to the family of Alexei. May he not be forgotten so easily as those whose voices were not so loud.
