Dear Russia: We don't hate you.
I'm really hoping that Americans can resist equating ALL Russians with the greedy, corrupt old Soviet-era oligarchs who have tyrannized over your state since those few first hopeful post-USSR days faded.
I think a lot of us know that Russia is full of young people hoping for a future better than becoming cannon fodder in an endless war machine propping up the fortunes of wealthy Putin cronies.
We know that there are families with children, working to build a future in communities looking for economic hope.
We know that Russia is more than a terrified, hollow shell of autarky feeding Putin's net worth and fragile old-man ego.
We know Russia is a place of deep cultural and spiritual roots and traditions, and a long history of struggle to escape top-down oppression.
We know Russia could be a place of hope and promise, building friendships in a worldwide community of nations eager to help and share economic, social, and cultural progress.
We know all this.
Just as we hope the world knew that America was more than an orange-faced blustering dictator-wannabe trying to destroy not just our own democracy, but our role in helping promote democratic equity worldwide, between 2016 and 2020.
We got rid of him.
Democratically.
We know you don't have the same resources, even in the damaged and threatened form we still have them in America.
But we also know you have immense strength as a people, as a nation, and as human beings.
Do what you must.
We'll help as we can.
It's possible we could be great friends and allies in the future, when all the sad, broken, fearful, tyrannical relics of the past have been kicked to the curb.
Worth a try?
За нашу дружбу!
hopefully,
Bright
= new reply since forum marked as read
And a hatred of Russia instilled in me as a result.
Now at 49 - and remembering some of my dad's last conversations with me before he died in 2011 - he was right.
They (the Russians) will never stop. Never let their guard down.
He once told me that as a Green Beret (1st Class of those guys) he made a choice - either his enemy's mother can cry or his mother could cry.
Tygr - you represent the BEST of America. 
I just don't have it in me. They remain the same threat that they did to me when I was a four year old living in West Germany in 1977. I cannot forget the fear and evil.
