It’s beginning to look a lot like Kitty Genovese.

The 28 year old woman who was brutally attacked and murdered on the street not far from her apartment in Queens, New York City in 1958.

The New York Times reported, two days later, that some 30 people watched the entire attack from their apartment or as they took their dog for its evening walk. And no one did a thing to help her during the brutal attack.

The similarity is NATO’s 30 members are watching from the sidelines as Russia pummels non military targets i.e., schools, hospitals, etc. and commits genocide on an innocent country, whose saving grace is that it is the farm belt of Eastern Europe. Yes, the US has sent Billions of dollars of missiles, etc., but are reluctant to create a no-fly zone, Ukraine’s №1 request of the West.

Ukraine lies on almost the same Latitude as Nebraska and Iowa and along with its fertile soil agriculture is Ukraine’s largest export. The Ukranian farmlands yield barley, sugar beets, rice and wheat. The fear of them not producing their annual harvest has led to the soaring cost of cooking oil.

And if the seeds are not planted early enough, there may well be a famine not known to man in modern times.

The reason why NATO / USA will not do more than send Billions of dollars of artillery and impose strict economic sanctions is, they do not want to start World War III and / or they’re afraid Russia will deploy nuclear weapons.

As we watch the evening news we see the latest destruction of apartment buildings, schools and hospitals. We see portions of limbs protrude out from beneath makeshift mass graves and we listen closely to the interpreter to get first hand accounts of what it is like to live through missile attacks and constant bombings and hear their now recognizable hiss and swoosh (sorry Nike) as the latest version of Russian artillery attempt to teach Ukraine to not even think about joining NATO.

I admit I have not watched the local or National news for the past two days. And I have to say I feel a bit less depressed. It was as if I did not see thousands of women and their young children huddled side by side in the subway station and grab each other tight when they hear and feel the wrath of a man who has serious issues. The same man our former president, who has been asked multiple times to condemn and refuses to do so. Your guess why is as good as mine.

The fourth night of Russia’s brutal attacks coincided with my wife’s birthday. And this year either our nephew Zach remembered on his own, or was prodded by a text from his parents to call and wish his aunt a Happy Birthday.

Zack, a senior @ the University of Alabama is a great kid, we love him dearly, but his knowledge of world affairs / current events was sort of lacking — until his Birthday call.

My wife put her phone on speaker and the first thing he said, after Happy Birthday was, “Did you see WTF is going on in Ukraine? I feel for those women and their young children lying in the subway station, fearing what is happening topside. I felt something in common with them. During my four years in Tuscaloosa I’ve been ordered at least twice a year into below ground bunkers when the tornado horns start blaring. I remember thinking each time I was in the bunker, what will be left when I get the f — — out of here.”

And with those comments and a show of empathy for those distressed mothers and children, our nephew was transformed from a college kid whose world comprised mostly of games in Bryant-Denny Stadium to cheer on the Tide and in the bars to celebrate their wins, into a more worldly young man who, through a shared experience with innocent women on the other side of the world has grown up to be a concerned citizen.

Zach plans to graduate next month. The Nataliyas, Vladimirs and other Ukranians who either remain in their tattered homeland trying to stay safe in subway stations and other below ground domiciles or those who have fled on the packed trains or walked their way to Poland, Romania or Hungary do not know where they will live, eat or even where they will go to the bathroom.

There is preliminary talk of a Marshall Plan 2.0 to rebuild the bombed out buildings, train stations and other replicas of a normal life. In 1948 the USA transferred the equivalent of $115 Billion in economic recovery to European countries to rebuild war-torn regions. The chance to build a “new Ukraine” lies ahead. Whenever the bombs and missiles stop putting holes in buildings and large divots in the earth.

Are we as a Nation — and maybe along with our NATO allies — ready to step up and provide significant financial assistance as we did 74 years ago?

Can you say, “Wow, what a great topic for the 2024 Presidential debates.”

Stay safe.