Opinion

Europe remembers the murders, destruction and subjugation of WWII, and history is now repeating itself in Ukraine. NATO countries have to vastly increase their militaries, both defensively and offensively, to thwart Russia. Tactical nuclear missile systems should be deployed within NATO countries. The addition of Sweden and Finland to NATO will give it a strategic presence in the north.

At some point, others who recall the lost world of real conservativism – people who, like me, campaigned and voted for Ronald Reagan, and who cheered George H.W. Bush’s work to create a “kinder and gentler” nation – need to look U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley in the eye, and themselves in the heart, based on this reality:

Calling all conservatives. The real ones.

Calling for unity against Vladimir Putin for the unprovoked invasion, indiscriminate destruction and war-crime murders of civilians in Ukraine is easy. Talk is cheap.

I was a single mom during Obama’s first campaign. I worked two jobs which barely covered (the) rent. Even while working more than 40 hours a week in a hospital, I didn’t have health care. I pieced together community supports, a sliding scale clinic when I had the flu, a visit to Planned Parenthood to address a lump in my armpit (it was fine), lots of consulting Dr. Google.