in response to a “debate” in the NYTimes about whether all Russians deserve to be persona non grata until their country ends its war against Ukraine, I wrote the following…
The US Presidential election of 2016 taught us that bad behavior at the top of our country is not a result of the leader himself. Rather, those who support, enable, and elect him are accountable for his actions, and are the only ones who can change his behavior. Our revolution of 1775-1781 taught us that “…When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…” they have the responsibility to change the leader(s) at the top.
There are undoubtedly many good Russians who don’t deserve our opprobrium. But their leader, in the name of all of them, has acted outside the boundaries of civilized behavior which much of the world aspires to in the third decade of the 21st century. It becomes their responsibility to effect the changes required to end the patriam non grata status to which their nation, and thus their individual lives, has been assigned.
To end their cancellation, they must cancel those who have committed the worst crime against humanity since 1939.