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Ode to Ukraine

Ode to Ukraine

Kutay Tanir/Getty Images
Rob Stein
By Rob SteinMar 15, 2022
Rob Stein
Rob Stein is the founder of the Democracy Alliance and co-founder of the Committee on States. An attorney by training, Rob has founded and run several non-profit organizations, was senior strategist to the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was Chief of Staff of the Washington Office of the Clinton-Gore Transition, served as Chief of Staff of the United States Department of Commerce, and was a private equity investor working with dozens of early-stage companies. Rob’s research about the funding, management and overall infrastructure of the conservative movement over the last three decades, and his recruitment of leading progressive strategists, activists and donors, resulted in the formation of the Democracy Alliance, and he co-founded the Committee on States. Rob co-led the “Strengthening Our American Republic” research sponsored by the Fetzer Institute and Stand Together with Carolyn Lukensmeyer. Since 2017, he has been a champion of, and commentator on, cross-partisanship in American culture and politics; and currently advises a diverse range of center-right, center-left and independent cultural and political organizations and leaders.
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Stein is an organizational and political strategist who has worked with dozens of for-profit, not-for-profit and political and public sector organizations over the past 50 years. He currently serves as a researcher/writer, consultant and champion of the work of cross-partisan cultural and political organizations and initiatives.

I know it is difficult to be optimistic in desperate times, but the burdens of healing the world are ours and ours alone - there is no one but us.

Thus, I proffer this “Ode to Ukraine” to encourage you to discover your own courage, belief, hope and faith in the possibilities of a better, more humane, evolved enlightened world:

Ukraine, thy individual acts of courage inspire our eternal belief in your cause;

thy personal resilience to defend your homeland is our hope for humanity

thy collective resolve to prevail in the face of unspeakable inhumanity waged against you sparks our faith in one another;

thy rejection of the forces of evil is the inspiration required to secure freedom, justice, and opportunity for ourselves and our posterity.

For this, and so much more, thy breath is our life

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