It was to be on the anniversary of when Churchill spoke before Congress to tell them WWII really was our war, too.
Yesterday I was horrified: they leaked that he’s coming? They compromised his security like that? Why did we need to know this? Why didn’t he just visit by video again?
And yet: the actual presence of Zelenskyy with Biden. The clear admiration in each other’s faces.
Zelenskyy, again, did the right thing for his country and for his people whatever the personal risk to himself. I pray for his safety.
And then when he spoke to Congress! What a speech. What a riveting effect–on most, anyway, with reporters calling out the very few members of Congress who didn’t show or who did but refused to stand or clap, invoking for me the famous line from Watergate, Follow the money. Given that it has been documented that Putin funded the NRA who funded his favorite Republicans–he got his infiltrator Buttina back in a prisoner swap after she was convicted here of that illegal funneling.
But I took heart in the many, whatever their politics, who rose together as one to applaud long and hard the man and his cause of freedom from tyranny and death, who represented well all of us Americans who admire the greatness of what Zelenskyy has risen to become.
Here’s the video of his speech, which was given in English. Fast forward to about the 20 minute mark for his entrance.
I was waiting for the transcript so I could fill in the gaps that the captions didn’t always help with.
Here’s the transcript, behind a NYT paywall for now but I expect it will pop up in more places by morning. But the words alone cannot convey the depth of passion of the man in the righteousness of his cause and in the defense of his people.
Meantime, I wore my quite large bright yellow sunflower necklace from Oleksandra this afternoon while running an errand, wanting to mark the day that everything, I pray, will have begun to change for the better.
For every hero of Ukraine.