Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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This column should write itself. It would have in the 20th century.
As I look around the world, what strikes me is the similarity among some nations when it comes to the reactions of their people toward a seeming loss of liberty, freedom, economic security, food security and practically every other kind of measurement of how things used to be — that we liked — and what they have morphed into today — that we fear.
The trend toward more authoritarian leadership is a natural, yet unhealthy and dangerous, move toward a mister or missus strongman who enthralls the voters with an “only I can fix it” attitude.
There are examples aplenty — we need only look back a couple of years in this country to get the picture.
I believe, however, that we are really yearning for a time when public officials are leaders of men and not readers of polls. There used to be people who instinctively knew how to act, when to act, and why the need to act was necessary as opposed to people who would only act when it was in their personal interest — whether for money or power — but rarely ever for the altruism that made America great in the first place.
There has been much said lately about President Joe Biden’s age, usually in an attempt to publicly disqualify him from running for reelection. It is telling that many people who advance that position are among the same cohort of citizens that has trouble grasping concepts dealing with ability, capability and durability in people who have reached a certain age.
I mention this because if ever there were a case to be made for Biden’s potential decision to run for reelection, I believe his recent secret trip to Ukraine should put the naysaying to rest.
In the dark of night, with a measure of secrecy recently unknown in Washington circles, and with a determination to do what was right and necessary for the under-siege and under-gunned people of Ukraine, the president of the United States made a command decision to lead.
When talk around the world centered both on Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s relentless and murderous campaign to obliterate the people of Ukraine and their country from the map, and the rest of the civilized world’s somewhat waning interest in financially supporting a defense of democracy in Europe — once again — it was the leader of the Free World who stepped up and acted as a leader should.
When Biden left the comfort of the White House under cover of darkness, when his people told a white lie to the media to protect the president’s safety and the security of the mission, when Biden stepped onto a train in Poland for a nine-hour railroad ride into an active war zone unprotected by the armed forces of the United States of America, and when he showed up on the doorstep of the bravest man on the planet — Volodymyr Zelenskyy — the entire world got the message.
The United States is leading the Free World against a tyrant who would destroy Ukraine just for kicks and turn his sights elsewhere in Europe just because he can.
Whichever other of our allied leaders might have felt some chill in their feet because of the cost of this war in money, material and future conflict with Putin’s Russia, all of that was allayed when the president of the United States stood shoulder to shoulder with the beleaguered Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine.
At its core, this is what leaders do.
And that is what Joe Biden did in order to send a message to the bad guys in this world. There is a serious person in charge of the safety and security of the United States, and the United States will stand side by side with our European and NATO allies if they are attacked for no reason or any reason.
And through it all, I didn’t hear a Ukrainian or anyone else for that matter make mention of the age of the man who stood tall on behalf of the United States of America.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
