It’s not the full moon tonight keeping me from sleep; I’m remembering Samantha Smith. She wrote a simple, peaceful letter to the leader of Russia. How surprised all we Mainers were when he wrote back to her. This feared Russian leader apparently took her honest words to heart and invited her to visit. He was courteous in his writing, and almost seemed human.

Russia’s leader did not return Samantha’s letter for a photo op. He didn’t propel her to fame in a TV series. Her accidental death stunned and crushed us because we all grew to adore her and her efforts. Had she lived, who knows, she might be running for president.

Can you imagine your child or grandchild writing to Putin? I would never visit him, let alone allow a youngster, like Samantha, to be near him. His horrible “little military operation” in Ukraine is in its third year. His killing of Navalny and incarceration of his followers indicates, despite the obvious, that he has no heart or conscience, and no regard whatsoever for democracy. What of the journalists his regime has killed? What of the critics living abroad who were poisoned and died? And their family members too? It just doesn’t seem to end.

If Ukraine falls, is Poland next? By then, we’ll have had a presidential election. How will the next president handle this? Probably as wisely as the people who elect them.

I’m going to try and get some sleep now. I’ll soon have to wake up. We all need to wake up. Educate yourselves on the issues. Talk to your neighbors and friends. Pray for what’s left of our great country. Vote. Serve. Kindly involve yourself. What type of future do you want?

Don’t care? Consider moving to Russia. There’s little wait at their expanding borders of cruelly demolished cities. Just don’t ever criticize your new leader there, or send a small donation to Ukraine.

Heidi Chadbourne

Manchester

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