Russia v. Ukraine

 "He has come to open the purple testament of bleeding war." - Richard III, Shakespeare

What has gotten into these people? Look at the Ukrainian soldiers hunkered down in the Azovetal Steel plant in Mariupol. While we marvel at their courage, we must wonder, "Why don't they surrender?" 

In World War II, Stalin forbade his troops to surrender to the Germans. He expected them all to fight to the death. If they surrendered, he considered them traitors. His own son was taken prisoner by the Germans. When the Germans realized they had captured Stalin's son, they offered him up in a prisoner exchange. Stalin replied, "I have no son."

Hitler was no better. He forbade his generals to retreat, no matter the circumstance. In Stalingrad, over 100,000 German soldiers of the 6th Army were trapped by Russian troops. To preclude a surrender by the commanding general, Friedrich von Paulus, Hitler promoted him to Field Marshal. That was the highest honor. No German field marshal had ever surrendered his army. Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus surrendered anyway. Ninety thousand German troops were marched from Stalingrad to Moscow in the dead of winter. Of those 90,000 men, only 5,000 made it back to Germany alive. That is the nature of these people. Their history is in them. 

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Chemical Warfare

What is the difference between nations using chemical weapons against their enemies - which is a war crime according to the Geneva Convention - and the police using tear gas, which is a chemical agent, against their own citizens? 

I know what tear gas does. I was tear-gassed, indirectly, (collaterally). I thought I would die. When it happens, you can neither see it, nor smell it. Suddenly, you simply cannot breathe. It starts with a cough, then gagging. Panic quickly sets in. (That's what happens when you find you can't breathe.) Someone yells, "Tear gas!" Now, you understand. But, there is nothing you can do. Too late to cover your nose, your mouth. It is not about tears, it is about breathing. Most people survive a tear gas attack. But, they never forget that moment when they could not breathe. 

Terror of the Wand

Ten years ago, the Michigan Department of Corrections implemented a high-tech system for doing prisoner count: Each officer is issued a heavy, metal wand they use to press against a metal nodule embedded in each prisoner's door. Presumably, they are to gently press the wand against the nodule to register a requisite "beep". Being that the wand is a sturdy object, however, allows the officer, if he pleases, to slam it against the nodule (with no apparent effect upon the wand, itself). The negative effect of said "slamming" upon prisoners' mental and physical health should not be understated. 

These officers do not need to bang against the prisoners' cell doors to complete their count. We know this because there are officers who come in and do their jobs - perform their prisoner counts - without a single "bang." The only noise they generate is an innocuous "beep."  

Banging against the doors seems to be a matter of choice, (if not one of peer pressure to conform to this aberrant norm.) They do not always slam their wands against the doors. Sometimes they rake it over the nodule, or tap, tap, tap at it, always producing that discomforting, grating sound of metal against metal. (Who would devise such a clunky system in the 21st century? Who would buy it, and place it in the hands of a workforce that, throughout history, has been notorious for its visceral cruelty?)

Observing these officers as they wield their wands, I am startled at their unbridled insensitivity. Could they be as oblivious to the stress they wreak upon prisoners as they appear? But, no, even the worst offender will favor a prisoner, from time to time, and go light on his door, signaling a consciousness of wrongdoing; confirming that much of their banging is purposeful, and malign. 

This prisoner count occurs every half hour, day and night. For a prisoner to be subjected to such a consistent barrage might be construed as a low-level form of torture. (Sometimes they rap it so hard, my insides quake, and my blood pressure soars.) Please, imagine someone banging on your door, your wall every half-hour of every day - while you eat read, and sleep. How long would it take for your nerves to begin to fray; like mine have frayed?

I once told an officer, "I wouldn't kick the side of a dog's house the way you (figuratively) kick ours - not even a dog I disliked - because that would be cruel." What these people are doing is the equivalent of zookeepers poking at the caged animals. No one would allow that. Yet, here men as helpless as animals are poked all day long. 

Mind you, these are not renegade officers who bang on our doors. The exception is the officer who does his count without cruelty. The rule is officers who perform those duties with a callous disregard. And, it isn't just the prison guards. Mid-level and upper-level administrators condone this behavior. (How else could it have gone on for years throughout Michigan's prison system?) Besides, many of the administrators bang on the doors, themselves. Even healthcare workers - people whose profession it is to relieve suffering - bang on the doors. I have personally appealed to nurses and doctors, and nothing has changed - not the behavior of the officers who work beside them, nor their own behavior. 

One healthcare worker told me there was nothing she could do and suggested that I find a way to accept it That is like telling someone who is being waterboarded to find another way to breathe. Why should anyone have to accept abuse? Get used to it? That is impossible. You don't "get used" to abuse. You might survive it, but each day of that survival stretches thin your humanity until you become a sliver of who you were. 

Noise affects all human, and animal lifeforms. Noise frightens and unnerves us. It negatively impacts what sense of security we may possess. There is no reason to implement such an oppressive system that ensures gratuitous noise where no noise is needed to complete the required task. The people who approved this count system, and those who execute it, seem to proceed from the notion that the imprisoned have no feelings free men are bound to respect. That would be a false conceit.