Last night I watched, for the second time, a documentary flick on HBO that I am now recommending to anyone in the world.
Alexei Navalny is a Russian dissident leader who has striven, through his entire life, to obtain justice, mercy and freedom for his fellow-citizens in Russia.
And he has paid a dear price—not in money, but in his own personal freedom—for his bold advocacy of democracy in the midst of the Russian beast state.
He is in prison now. During a period of relative freedom, between two imprisonments, he managed to make a the documentary video that you can see on HBO. Alexei has received continuously faithful help from his wife, children and other friends. Their loyal presence and support throughout their struggle is front-and-center visible in the incredible documentary that they made.
Navalny’s message of freedom is especially poignant now, as Putin strains his Russian State and People in his attempt to enslave the Ukrainians.
I was born in 1951. My appreciation for Freedom has continuously boosted throughout my 71 years of life. However, there are three memories that I will share with you that are especially poignant.
In 1961, our President John F. Kennedy visited the people of Berlin, Germany. At that time, the Russians, having occupied Germany since the end of World War II, were building a wall to separate the captive people of East Germany from the free people of West Germany.
President Kennedy spoke boldly to those Berliners, and to the world at large. He challenged the people of the world: “Let them come to Berlin” . . . to see the plain and obvious difference between political bondage—as seen on the Russian side of the wall— and, as seen on the Western side of the wall. Our President intensified his identity with the free people of West Germany when he announced: “Ich bin ein Berliner!”
Now, in the 21st century, Alexei Navalny would qualify as one of those rare brave souls to whom Kennedy dedicated his "Profiles in Courage."
A couple of decades later, President Reagan took the protest to another level, very plain and simple: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
One more memory I’ll share with you. When I was still a young man, early 1970’s, I heard a haunting melody sung, a capella, by Crosby, Stills and Nash:
“Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground.”
The dearest cost of our collective freedom is that ultimate price of sacrifice, offered by brave men and women who have, throughout history, paid that ultimate price of death, in their rugged slog through oppression and tyranny.
Alexei Navalny is one Russian patriot who has found himself close—very close—to that ultimate price of being laid in the cold, cold ground.
And yet, and yet, he’s still alive and cooking.
Check our the video on HBO. The name of the movie is “Navalny.”
For more information about this modern-day Patrick Henry, I recommend Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Navalny
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