Why Substack? Why Now?

On Moving from Another Platform

I have used Medium for over four years

It was a place to first explore personal issues of health, and to speak about the pandemic, and the climate emergency. These were close to me, especially the health subjects. However, on February, 24 of 2022 my Medium transformed. It became a place to explain the war and Russia.

But there are some changes coming that are now forcing me to finally try this platform. I have heard a lot of good things, so it’s time

Why?

My dad was a Holocaust survivor. He came to Mexico from Poland after the war our family lost over 300 family members at Treblinka. Children, aunts, uncles, the elders, they were gone in a flash. My dad and his family survived because a local family protected them. Now they are honored at the Yad Vashem among the righteous among the nations. During the war my dad also had to find food, during the 18 months of occupation and death. They hid in a hole under the cows, in a barn.

Late in life my dad told both my husband, a retired USN Chief, and me some of the stories of resistance. He was right when he told us that the rest of the family would not get it. I am a veteran of the Mexican Red Cross, where I helped set one of the paramedical programs, but was also caught in plenty of firefights with the cartels My husband is a veteran of several wars. So we both have seen things. He told us things that are familiar with the stories emerging from Ukraine. Genocides have certain points in common.

One of the early stories to emerge was of a fourteen year old young man who had to do what my dad did during those eighteen months of German occupation. He had to look for food to take it to the basement to family in Bucha That’s how they survived He was no longer a boy, and just like my father, he grew up in an instant

That is when I started to write on the war on Medium, and learned how to use Telegram. I also started reading as if I were back in Graduate School. I took some European, eastern to be specific, history in graduate school I had a year of Russian history, taught by a Soviet emigre at the end of the Cold War. There was a certain bias that is familiar to Eastern European historians. It was part of my coursework back then, so I have gone out of my way to read those historians that write on countries such as Ukraine

Dad also shielded us of stories of the Soviets when we were young. Yet, he did tell us stories late in life. They were familiar to the present, including the drunk red army soldiers, the Russification, both before the war technically started, and after liberation. He was always torn. Russians were not nice before 1941. But they were positively nasty after liberation. Yet, it was a Russian field hospital that saved the life of my aunt that was near death from starvation. I guess that’s why he at times listened to Radio Moscow on the shortwave. He always wanted to know the stories that the Soviets told the world. He at times swore at the radio. It was the lies.

He spoke some Russian, but he, and the family could not stay in Poland. Not after over three hundred of the family died. They left for Mexico where they rebuilt their lives. The stories though were distant until this war started. Like many others who live in Eastern Europe, or have any connection with Eastern Europe, Ukraine is not surprising. If you could say it is in the blood, I guess that is one way to describe it

My angle here is Telegram, plus history. It’s a fascinating place to go to and watch it’s a fantastic place to just read. However, you need to wade though a lot of propaganda. Because of how Russians work and think you can see a lot of how the society works. Or at least the ultra nationalist right, and liberal Russians. It’s literally looking though the looking glass.

Because Russians have no sense of operational security, we know far better where the line of contact is as well. However, I still wait for the Ukrainian. general staff to officially confirm the liberation of a town.

Community

This is a place to look at what is going on in Ukraine and Russia while I do have some empathy for Russians, I do not extend this to the oligarchs, or any who is high in the systema. Or for that matter to high ranking army officers. Yes, sometimes in the comments you will see people post friendly propaganda from Russia I tend to interact with these people because they need to have that pushback

But in general, I want a friendly community where people respect each other

When, how, what…

I try to publish often sometimes I miss a day. I guess we all need vacations too. But at times I even do twice a day, if we have major breaking news. Occasionally I do look at American national politics. Partly because where we are is a very dangerous moment in our history

So from time to time there will be something on that

We occasionally take to the field to cover local issues as well. My husband is the photographer in the house, though I do some myself. This is particularly true with the climate emergency. But rarely I do tackle local policy issues as well

A photos…

I do collect screen grabs with important info, like the bellow one showing a Ukrainian soldier at the Robotino town sign in Ukraine. Likely the line is further south from there. This came via Twitter, but it was released by Ukraine

Welcome to my Substack. Let’s build a community together

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