We’ve all heard the saying: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We know the truth of this: we have lived it, and watch in horror as it plays out now, as it has throughout history.
February is a banner month for Vladimir Putin and his regime, marking the anniversaries of three grim and illegal maneuvers led by the Russian President.
February 27, 2014: Putin invaded the Crimean Peninsula, seizing control of that part of Ukraine and occupying and controlling Crimea.
February 24, 2022: Claiming, without a shred of evidence, he was “saving” Ukraine from Neo-Nazis, Putin invaded the country again. He announced his “special military operation,” by declaring war on Ukraine, in direct violation of the U.N. Charter.
February 16, 2024: This date marks the death of Russia’s top opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. After several previous attempts on his life by the Kremlin, he died “of natural causes” while being held in a special penal colony in the Arctic Circle. He was 47 years old.
Putin is now in his fifth term as President of Russia. With 25 years in power (including the four-year period his ‘puppet,’ Dmitry Medvedev, ruled, until Putin could change term limit laws), he is the longest-serving Russian or Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin, and every bit as ruthless as his predecessor.
All that is necessary to know about Putin can be found by hanging out with a willful three-year-old for an hour: he wants what he wants when he wants it. And he is willing to go to any means to get it.
Why do bullies exist? Because they can. How do bullies persist? Because no one opposes them. Finally, how are bullies stopped? Only by standing up to them. The parents or teachers of an obstinate toddler will presumably intervene to curtail their selfish actions. There will be consequences. But who dares to oppose Putin?
Just how much damage can a bully really do? A toddler: minimal. An unopposed and power-hungry leader: monumental. In Putin’s case, the stakes are astronomically high. He demoralizes, imprisons, or murders his own citizens, and attacks independent countries for the resources he wants. The entire country of Ukraine has rich farmland and vast mineral resources, and the Donbas region is one of the richest areas in the world in lithium deposits.
We need only look at recent history to see the consequences of an unleashed, unchecked bully: i.e. Adolph Hitler and the resulting carnage of World War II. An estimated 50 to 60 million people died on the European front as a result of his actions, the deadliest conflict in human history. Over a million are already dead because of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The accompanying photo shows our adoption agency’s “staff” in Kharkiv, Ukraine, celebrating the adoption of our then two-year-old son. Mariana, our in-country facilitator, (second from left) employed her extended family through agency jobs, ensuring their survival in Ukraine’s tough economy. Left to right: Valencia, Marina’s mother, our cook; Dimitri, her cousin, our driver; Mikhail, her son, our “tour guide”; Igor, another cousin, orphanage coordinator; and Valery, yet another cousin, whose apartment we lived in while there.

Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine and close to the Russian border, has been bombed mercilessly for almost three years. During the first weeks of the war, network news showed Orphanage #4, where our son was, being evacuated as bombs exploded all around.
Likely, many of the people in this photo are now dead.
Innocent people everywhere fall victim to bullies’ malevolence and greed. My husband and I have also adopted from Russia. The people we worked with there were also wonderful, and also victims of Putin’s bullying.
In St. Petersburg, we clearly saw the terror and intimidation by the government in our Russian staff. They rarely smiled, and advised us not to. Smiling marked a foreigner, or someone as daft, as there was not much to smile about. Belied by government propaganda, Russians, too, are Putin’s victims, living in continual fear of his oppressive regime.
Our current and often muddled thinking might have us believe that evil and goodness are hazy definitions. But they are not.
Evil flourishes when it is not stopped, just as bullies continue to bully if they are not opposed. Courage is called for. A world leader instigating his “oligarchy” is the first clue. We must remain constantly vigilant in our own country, and act with conviction in the world.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."



















photo courtesy of Michael Varga.
An Independent Voter's Perspective on Current Political Divides
In the column, "Is Donald Trump Right?", Fulcrum Executive Editor, Hugo Balta, wrote:
For millions of Americans, President Trump’s second term isn’t a threat to democracy—it’s the fulfillment of a promise they believe was long overdue.
Is Donald Trump right?
Should the presidency serve as a force for disruption or a safeguard of preservation?
Balta invited readers to share their thoughts at newsroom@fulcrum.us.
David Levine from Portland, Oregon, shared these thoughts...
I am an independent voter who voted for Kamala Harris in the last election.
I pay very close attention to the events going on, and I try and avoid taking other people's opinions as fact, so the following writing should be looked at with that in mind:
Is Trump right? On some things, absolutely.
As to DEI, there is a strong feeling that you cannot fight racism with more racism or sexism with more sexism. Standards have to be the same across the board, and the idea that only white people can be racist is one that I think a lot of us find delusional on its face. The question is not whether we want equality in the workplace, but whether these systems are the mechanism to achieve it, despite their claims to virtue, and many of us feel they are not.
I think if the Democrats want to take back immigration as an issue then every single illegal alien no matter how they are discovered needs to be processed and sanctuary cities need to end, every single illegal alien needs to be found at that point Democrats could argue for an amnesty for those who have shown they have been Good actors for a period of time but the dynamic of simply ignoring those who break the law by coming here illegally is I think a losing issue for the Democrats, they need to bend the knee and make a deal.
I think you have to quit calling the man Hitler or a fascist because an actual fascist would simply shoot the protesters, the journalists, and anyone else who challenges him. And while he definitely has authoritarian tendencies, the Democrats are overplaying their hand using those words, and it makes them look foolish.
Most of us understand that the tariffs are a game of economic chicken, and whether it is successful or not depends on who blinks before the midterms. Still, the Democrats' continuous attacks on the man make them look disloyal to the country, not to Trump.
Referring to any group of people as marginalized is to many of us the same as referring to them as lesser, and it seems racist and insulting.
We invite you to read the opinions of other Fulrum Readers:
Trump's Policies: A Threat to Farmers and American Values
The Trump Era: A Bitter Pill for American Renewal
Federal Hill's Warning: A Baltimorean's Reflection on Leadership
Also, check out "Is Donald Trump Right?" and consider accepting Hugo's invitation to share your thoughts at newsroom@fulcrum.us.
The Fulcrum will select a range of submissions to share with readers as part of our ongoing civic dialogue.
We offer this platform for discussion and debate.