Well, this week seemed to go much better for me on a personal note.  I truly can’t believe that we are now into the next month of the year and 2014 seems to have started out much better than 2013 ever went for me.  I just hope that things can continue to go as well as they have in the past.  We’ve had issues, but it’s nothing that God hasn’t given us the ability to handle.  My wife keeps saying that and I’m really trying hard to agree with her as much as I can.   We will make it through this year and I believe that my family will be stronger and better for it.

This week has been crazy on both the personal and professional front.  I am still reeling from not having my laptop for almost a week and a half.  It has affected me in huge ways.  I spent most of my week trying to catch up on the work I had to do on that laptop.  Like trying to get the video and audio edited out from the BCO concert we had the weekend before.  As if that wasn’t enough this week was plagued by other performances.  Last weekend Ruth had work along with Heather on both Saturday and Sunday and on Sunday we had our usual chaos of BYSO practices along with Ruth’s clarinet lesson.  On Monday, Heather took my external hard drive over to Computer Emergency Room and by lunch time, she was able to get me the files off the old laptop along with another laptop they had from my company STAR Productions.  I kind of felt like it was all a “two for one” deal.  I also had my SMASH Rehearsal after school. Then there was the situation with my two older children all week.  It was Tech Week for their Beauty and the Beast production at CV High School and their Drama Club this weekend.  So, they were at school until about 9 o’clock each night this week running through the show all week long.  On Wednesday night, I had the Eastside Band Concert.  It went well, but it was another concert that I had to edit out for video and audio for the concert.  On Thursday night I had BCO Rehearsal and tonight (after I write this), Heather and I have the kids’ musical to go to.  I can’t believe how busy Music In Our Schools Month has already been for us and we aren’t even halfway through yet!

Okay, so I know my title will have caught a LOT of people’s attention, but it actually is an honest question to answer.  When I saw the situation break out in the Ukraine shortly after the Sochi Olympics began, I looked at my wife and said this could not have come at a worse time for the Ukraine or for the world at that rate.  I told her that within a week of the end of the Olympic games, Putin would invade the Ukarine claiming he needed to bring back law and order and that he needed to get things under “control”.  Well, it has played out exactly as I said it would.  Why should it concern us?  Well, unless we learn from the mistakes in our past, we are doomed to repeat it!  The one thing I think we did wrong when Adolf Hitler came to power was the first philosophy we had with Hitler.  We let him have certain land to appease his thirst for control and power.  We appeased him by letting have Czechoslovokia and then we let him have Poland and then things got out of control.  Well, what are we doing with Putin?  Well, there are threats of sanctions and the threat that we will do something economically to them, but it’s not enough.  We have drawn down our military so far that even if we wanted to do something about the Russian army, we do not have enough military resources to do anything about it.  And trust me when I say that Putin is well aware of that.  The part that actually scares me, to a vast extent, is the fact that we as Americans are not connecting the dots.  The Egyptians rise up against their government and half the world thinks this is an awesome idea, including our own President.  They then elect a Democratically elected leader, and good or bad, that leader doesn’t work out.  So, who runs their government?  The military.  Anyone notice that the news hasn’t covered that story lately?  That’s because the military STILL runs that government.  Then we have the situation in Tunisia where the same thing happens and the same scenario took place in Libya, which has been overlooked by many because of the Benghazi scenario with our own Embassy.  And the White House likes the idea that we are focusing on Benghazi and NOT the fact that the Libyan military is now running that government.  Then the situation with Syria has been heating up as well.  There are other governments in turmoil, but the interesting fact that is a common theme is that the opposition to ALL of these governments are using Russian weaponry.  AK-47s, Russian Rocket Launchers, among other equipment.  How did they get this equipment?  Well, the Russians had to supply them in some way.  The Russians are gaining friends with our enemies.  In the long term, Putin would like to reunite the Old Russian Empire.  He would love to see all the old countries like Georgia, Ukraine, Boznia, Herzogovina all become part of something he would like to call the Russian Federation.  I like to call it the Russian Empire part 2.  My fear is that he will not stop there.  I’m not convinced that the Cold War ever ended.  Instead, I like to think it was put on ice, only to rear it’s ugly head again.  Only time will tell if I’m right.  But if I am.  Then Putin’s ambitions will not end with the Ukraine.  Instead, the Ukraine will be the testing ground to see how the US and the UN will deal with Russia and just how far Putin feels he can go before the world will not put up with his totalitarianism anymore.