The New Most Popular Proper Noun In American Discourse Is . . .Ukraine.

The teapot tempest that is the Trump impeachment trial in the US Senate chambers has brought never-before, almost continuous media reference to a place that few Yankees were aware existed and couldn't find on a map. This is, of course, Ukraine.

Go ahead, point out the country that is Ukraine. For a bonus, name any Ukrainian city other than Kiev (or Kyiv).

So what's the meaning of all this attention to a relatively mysterious place in Eurasia? Most importantly, the great American scheme of things rates importance based on economic and political factors. Ukraine has no oil. Why would Americans have an interest in a place that can't provide fuel for their Volvo station wagon or Toyota Corolla? Other Ukrainian contributions to the world are similarly limited, being mostly recipes for good sausage, if not the sausages themselves. Canada is a notable exception in that there is a large and happy Ukrainian immigrant population in the western portion of the Dominion.

The reason that elements of the US political machinery have concerns about events in Ukraine is, of course, its proximity to Russia. Despite being an ally of crucial importance in WWII and no longer a force for the dissemination of communism world-wide, Russia remains the epicenter of evil on earth. Satan's henchman, Vladimir Putin, has dedicated his life and that of his countrymen to the enslavement of the free and productive Yankee population. It's imperative that the US maintain an adversary relationship between the Russian bear and the Ukrainian whatever-he-is, simply to occupy Putin's devilish mentality, if nothing else.

This feeling was dramatically expressed a few days ago in the somber US senate chambers by US representative Adam Schiff, who said, “The United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there so we don’t have to fight Russia here.”