Distracted by Russian invasion of Ukraine

I apologize for working more slowly than usual. I have been extremely distracted and preoccupied by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. My Great Grandfather left the village of Peremyliv, in what is now western Ukraine in 1902, when it was still under Austrian rule. He came to Canada and worked HARD building a life in a country that wasn't completely accepting of him. He came to Ethelbert, Manitoba, near other Ukrainian settlers and stayed with his girlfriend's family, working at a brick factory until he could buy his own land to clear and farm.

After hundreds of years of oppression and exploitation under foreign rulers, 100 000s of immigrants from Galicia came to North America and participated in the colonization of Turtle Island, my Great grandfather and his girlfriend among them. They made a place here, for a family, and I exist now to fix your synths because of them, in part. It is a complicated story.

I strongly support Indigenous Sovereignty in Canada and I am also proud of my family history. 

Ukraine, with the borders we recognize today (pre Crimean invasion), briefly struggled to exist after WWI but quickly became a part of the Soviet Union, and remained so until its collapse in 1991, when independent Ukraine became recognized. The people there had been ruled by others since the siege of Kyiv in 1240. They were ready for independence, but they had to overcome the chaos of the Soviet dissolution and the following decades of corruption and collusion. In 2014 they showed that they rejected Russian Mir and they have been fighting for their democracy since then. 

In 2019 they chose Volodymyr Zelenskyy reaffirming their commitment to be free of Russian influence in a hotly contested, fully democratic election. Since the Maidan Uprising in 2014 and the ousting of Kremlin Puppet Yanukovych, "pro-Russian parties" (to put in the nicest terms) have failed to win in any election.

Putin's "SpEcIaL oPeRaTiOn" is a War - an invasion of a smaller independent democratic state by a nuclear-armed aggressor. All justifications made by the Kremlin are ridiculous. It is a war of territorial expansion based on genocidal ideology and a distorted version of history.

I won't spend time disputing their hideous PR, but I will spend time informing myself on the history of the region and the history of Western international policy. But mostly I will spend time listening to, learning from, and supporting Ukrainians until the war is over and they have reestablished their borders.

Also I will also fix a few things when I can! Thanks for understanding and supporting Ukraine.