The war goes on in Ukraine. It is heartbreaking. I have such deep compassion for what the people in Ukraine are going through. My emotions and my questions remain complicated.
Over the past week, I’ve listened to interviews with Ukrainian government officials and with common citizens, from those remaining in Ukraine and others who have fled the fighting. Most of those who have fled are tragically leaving their homes and their cities and their lives. I have great empathy for these traumatic experiences. My grandparents went through the same horrors three generations ago in this same country. They left with a bag or just the clothes on their backs. Their futures were entirely uncertain. During the interviews everyone is grateful and respectful for the help they are receiving from the US and from other European countries. There is also almost a unanimous expression that the US and the west are not doing nearly enough. While I understand their sense of desperation, I also ask myself, where was your help and compassion when my family and my people were being terrorized and slaughtered in your country?
The same kind of human atrocities that are being experienced in Ukraine are occurring daily in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Southeast Asia. The world reaction to Ukraine has been loud and almost every country represented in the United Nations has supported military and humanitarian efforts for Ukraine. The emotional reaction to Ukraine has been so universal and so strong that people are keeping track of what countries and what companies are supporting Ukraine, who is not supporting Ukraine and who has the unmitigated gall to abstain or be silent. The world is keeping track and making all the concomitant moral judgements. Why Ukraine and not Yemen or Syria? Why Ukraine and not the Darfur region of Sudan, Northern Uganda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo? I could go on. There is no shortage of atrocities around the world. If you have the time or inclination, check out the Human Rights Watch website.
These are the last of my fall photographs from November 2021. I went back to the Olentangy Trail and Highbanks Metropark. My last visit was to Hard Road Park on a cold and sunny Sunday morning. I arrived just before sunrise and everything in the field was covered in frost. The conditions were spectacular for the small scenes, close-ups and macro that I enjoy shooting.
Olentangy Trail
Highbanks Metro Park
Hard Road Park
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