As we know, many have paid a price for speaking out about peace, working or peace and trying to make people realize the truth about war. Yesterday in Moscow another person who tries to speak about what is really happening in Ukraine was sentenced by a Russian court to almost nine years in jail.
Ilya Yashin, a Russian dissident, spoke out about the Bucha massacres, something that Putin and his circle denies ever happened. Convicted by a sham court for spreading “fake news” – oh, where have we heard that phrase before – Yashin said, “It is better to spend ten years behind bars for being an honest man than to quietly burn in shame.”
More than 20,000 peace activists have been arrested by Putin’s war machine. They are paying the price for their work or peace. Both Yashin and Alexei Navalny believe that peace will win in the end, that repression cannot go on forever. I hope they’re right.
Prayer for the Day
Called to bring peace to the world in this day and at this time,
We are often unsure what that call demands;
Called to walk in the light, we often walk in the darkness,
Caught between our memories of the past and our hopes for the future.
Help us, O Holy One, to see the world with a new vision,
As did the blind man whose eyes were opened.
May we always be faithful to your vision, as was the One we follow,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
Thoughts for the Day
I join with you most cordially in rejoicing at the return of peace. I hope it will be lasting, and that mankind will at length as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats: for in my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace.
- Benjamin Franklin in his 1783 letter to Sir Joseph Banks (1706-1790)
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
Jeannette Rankin, First woman in Congress (1880-1973)
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not lisen?
Or cry to you, “Violence!” and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous – therefore, justice comes forth perverted.
Habakkuk 1: 1-4