Mariame Kaba is an activist, a thinker, and a writer I have long admired, and she has been giving exceptionally great advice lately on Blue Sky, including this, which I will paraphrase:
For a whole range of reasons, people are not well-informed about what is taking place right now in America. To address that problem, create a one-sheet explainer that can be printed and distributed at in-person protests or other events, as well as online.
Now mind you, she gave this advice weeks ago, and all that while, I have been sitting with it, possibly on it, sometimes beside it. Because who am I to explain things?! I am not an economist. I am not an attorney. I am not a historian or a sociologist or an ex-KGB agent with a closet full of cocktail gowns and trench coats.
After reading the comments on a friend's Facebook post about Ukraine, however, I decided that it does not matter. It does not matter that I am not an expert; it matters that I am as intellectually honest as I know how to be and that I know how to do research.
To that end, here is a one-sheet explainer on Putin and Ukraine.
Please use it as it best serves you - to improve your own understanding, to hand out at a protest or other event, to send to your Uncle Marvin who is retired. It is intended to be shared. It is intended to be helpful.
My name is not on it. I created a gmail address so that people can give feedback, ask questions, make corrections, or scream at me. I therefore introduce . . . To Be Clear.
Go forth, little one-page explainer!
