The Opposite of Brave

Big Daddy Trump ditches Zelensky for Putin.

You can be amazing
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug
You can be the outcast
Or be the backlash of somebody's lack of love
Or you can start speaking up
Nothing's gonna hurt you the way that words do
When they settle 'neath your skin
Kept on the inside and no sunlight
Sometimes, a shadow wins

Songwriters: Jack Antonoff / Sara Bareilles.

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Three years ago today, on the 24th of February 2022, Vladimir Putin announced a military operation against Ukraine. Minutes later, missiles and airstrikes were launched, followed by a ground invasion.

Today’s newsletter is about the evil that men do.

Not those in charge, who will be recorded in the history books, but the men and women who put them there, who support and empower terrible people.

And not those in countries like Russia or Ukraine, where a free election or ambition beyond survival may be a distant dream.

But people in places like the USA or Aotearoa, where voters are free to choose and yet opt for leaders who make the rest of us say, “You cannot be serious, for the love of God, why? What did the world ever do to you?”