TELL YOUR STORIES

Nearly all of my life I have been called an optimist, with the exception of a few short years when I suffered from clinical depression. With treatment, understanding, and the grace of God I pulled through those years – mostly by removing myself from an unhealthy relationship. Some years it has been a struggle to maintain an optimistic attitude. I was often called Pollyanna for doing so when others did not feel my situation or the conditions of the world warranted it.

In recent years, as I no longer struggle to “make a living” (thank God for Medicare and generous children) I have had more time to witness in greater detail the events going on in the world. If one is not careful, this can lead to a depression in the most optimistic of persons. For some time I devoured my newspapers with broadcast news for backup. With the acquisition of my first computer – thanks again to my generous children – I discovered the “miracle” of the Internet and more news than I could ever read. My Favorites and Documents files have to be reviewed often to delete items I thought were absolutely important for me to re-read. For a few years I had cable TV - which was almost my downfall. One can listen to just so many pundits and their mostly negative rhetoric without absorbing that negativity. I no longer have cable (I'm thankful), and have discovered the absolute pleasure of watching PBS and what I consider their balanced view (makes me sound like FOX News, doesn't it?) on current events. Although I notice a few corporate sponsors creeping in, for the most part the lack of big spenders that they must appease with their news broadcasts leads me to believe they are more accurate than other news outlets. I still surf the web, reading different online newspapers - that's an oxymoron today, isn't it? I guess the proper term is news sites. And I still watch broadcast news, alternating different networks to see if they are reporting the same things.

I have to take a break now and then, and do a lot of soul-searching and I must admit, a lot of praying. An article I read online listed "10 Habits of Optimists". As this was more interesting than the article "6 Things You Don't Know About Ear Wax", I looked at it and I discovered one of the habits is to "Tell Your Stories". This is something I feel I've done a lot of through the years, however, there may be a few of my stories you haven't heard yet. Two of these were brought to mind recently because of the Russian military takeover of the Crimea region of the Ukraine. 

Many of you reading this were not even born when the old Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956. I was in high school, and I have to admit that I don't remember much about it. If anything, I might have felt the anxiety my father was having at the possibility of another war - this time an even more dreadful war as the Soviets also had atomic bombs. After all, Dad had already served three tours of duty in the Army - in both WWII and the Korean Conflict. Thank goodness, President Eisenhower was a prudent Republican politician, even though he was a former 5-Star General in the U.S. Army. ("I Like Ike" was a motto in our house.) Knowing military intervention might trigger another war with a catastrophic release of atomic weapons upon the world, the U.S., under his leadership, did nothing. The far-distant location of Hungary may have influenced the decision not to intervene, as closer to home, Ike was dealing with the Suez Canal crisis. Economic sanctions would be pointless, as the Russians took what they wanted from the countries they occupied after WWII. No one called Eisenhower "weak" for not wanting to involve the United States in another war, this time in Hungary. And we still remained one of the world Superpowers. Therein lies the memories of the following stories I wish to share.

(AP)

In 1968, living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my then-husband and I made a trip to the area of Taos to look at property that was to be developed on the outskirts of this resort area. The man who was developing it, and trying to raise money (he wasn't going to get any from us, as we didn't have any) to put in roads, utilities, etc. was a grey-haired, Hungarian immigrant, perhaps in his late 60s or early 70s. He was delightful, and charmed us with not only his accent and upbeat personality, but also the food he brought along for our visit to the site.. warm ale, green chilis (my first taste of them), cheese, sausage, and a delicious round loaf of home-baked bread. When we stopped for our lunch, we were ravenous from the high altitude. As we ate, we listened to our host tell his horrific story of when the Soviet Union took over his home country of Hungary. 30,000 lives were lost in that invasion.

Soviet Union Invades Budapest, Hungary

Along with many intellectuals and professional people of Hungary, he was taken to the Soviet Union as a "political prisoner". He spent nine years as a prisoner who was forced to work at his profession as an architect, for the benefit of the Russians, under armed guard during the day. At night he was returned to a prison cell. I have forgotten most of what he told us about his escape from Russia, although once, he hid in a farmer's barnyard. The farmer dug a hole for him to climb into, then he covered him with cow manure from the yard. He made the hair on my neck stand up as he told of Russian soldiers searching for him, and even walking over the site where he was buried. 

Eventually making his way to the United States, the gentleman told us that he was working to make money so he could continue to travel the United States telling his story about the Communist Russians to schools and any other venue who would have him. He could not stress strongly enough the brutality he and others suffered at the hands of the Russians as they pushed their way across eastern Europe, hungry for power and domination. It was during this time (1968) that the Soviet Union was invading Czechoslovakia, and the United States, again, was not intervening. After all, we were heavily involved in Vietnam. I don't recall anyone calling President Lyndon Johnson "weak" for not helping the Czech people at the time. Nor was the U.S. no longer considered a Superpower.

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Let's go back in time to the year 1962. I was living with my husband and children in Roswell, NM, surrounded by 12 Atlas lift-silo missile sites. These were underground missiles. Walker AFB was located there as well. We had two neighbors during the year we lived there who were engineers at the sites. At the time of the Cuban missile crisis, our next-door neighbors were a young couple with two children, both in diapers. Barb and Luis were their names. They were fun to be with, and we became close friends. I will never forget that October day when Barb came over, babe in arms, her face flushed as she rushed to tell me Luis had just called her... something he had been warned not to do! He told her to load the car with clothing, diapers, baby formula, water, and food, and to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. He didn't have time to - or couldn't - tell her more. She was frightened and therefore, it scared me as well. We did not have 24-hour news coverage in those days, but I turned on the television in case we got some kind of emergency signal. I called my husband at work, and he told me not to worry, I didn't need to get the kids ready for evacuation. The evening news told a different story. The missile sites around Roswell guaranteed that we would be a target if Khrushchev decided to ignore President Kennedy's warning and the U.S. blockade he had set up. The United States came the closest it has ever come to being in a nuclear war. The rest is history.

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Two stories, two different presidents, two political parties and different outcomes. We intervened by blockading any more arms or missiles reaching Cuba from Russia, but would we have actually fired nuclear weapons if Khrushchev had not backed down and removed their missiles? Cuba is only 90 miles from the United States. Obviously, we could not allow the Soviet Union to aim their nuclear missiles at us from that near country. They could have destroyed a large portion of the U.S. before we could respond and return fire on Russia. We later learned that despite all of the overt threats, Kennedy and Khrushchev were spending lots of time on the telephone behind the scenes, hashing over details of the crisis and what the options were for a solution.

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President Obama faces some of the same decisions in regards to Crimea. The distance of the Ukraine from the United States, and the fact that the taking back of Crimea (which had originally been a part of the old Soviet Union) by Russia will not immediately affect us is similar to the situation in Eastern Europe those many years ago. So far, Putin's military has not brought any violence upon the region. So far, he hasn't pushed further into the Ukraine. This time, economic sanctions may prove to be the best solution to the attempted takeover. Diplomatic isolation, asset freezes and travel bans against oligarchs have been suggested. Europe's diversifying its energy supply and developing pipelines that do not run through Russia, along with assistance from North America's oil and gas, will put added pressure on Russia, as its economy cannot tolerate lower oil prices.

Politicians who are pushing for military intervention in order to enhance their own political stance in an election year, should be working together with Obama's administration and our European allies to stop this bully Putin in his tracks. Publicly accusing Obama as being "weak", and suggesting his policies have reduced the United States' standing as a world Superpower only do more to encourage Putin, who is seen as a power-hungry narcissist, anxious to regain the status of the old Soviet Union. 

As President Obama and Putin are also talking by telephone behind the scenes, let us all send prayers for a peaceful resolution that will benefit not only the citizens of Crimea and the Ukraine, but the rest of Europe as well. My optimistic nature believes this is possible. Our Congress should come together and stop undermining the current administration. "United" is what makes our nation strong - not the ability to go to war. 

Tell me your stories that impacted your life.

and love,
Marilyn