[War] Russia: Let us begin, with a prayer

[Vampi Digitalwytch]

"Let us begin, with a prayer"

President Anastasia Malevich

Each time she set foot in church, she felt like a small child again,
going to her father's services.  It was her comfort, her solace no
matter what life threw at her.  And as of late, much had been thrown
at her.

Elections were over, she'd won by a slim margin.  In truth, she hadn't
expected to win with the candidates who had soiled the face of the
Rodina to the world with the tawdry battles in the news more worthy of
the rags of tabloids.

But it was just another visible symptom of the disease that ran
rampant in her homeland, more like multiple diseases that went into
remission only to flare up worse each time.  It helped to look at the
bigger picture as such, with the scalpel in her hand to excise the
diseased tissue if that was the only way to cure.

The old hardliners who still longed for the iron fist of Communism
still lurked, as did those who wanted the chaos of an American style
Democracy.

All of them were fools to not see how grotesque the failures were, how
much of a mess things were, moreso than what the world saw on the
nightly news.

Anastasia sighed as she lost herself in the choir's hymns.

'God...God grant me strength to endure what must be done...', she
prayed mentally, 'For once, I am alone, no confidant to share my true
feelings.  Grant me the Wisdom to know which battle to pick when,
grant me Fortitude to endure my staunchest opponents...and grant me
the ability to show Mercy when in my heart, I feel none should be
given.'.

As the last benediction was given, she took a deep, cleansing breath
to prepare herself for the day.

Her security followed her as she left with the congregation, and as
had been when they'd gone in, another Islamic protest was across the
street.  One of her bodyguards looked to her with a raised eyebrow as
the protesters grew louder upon sight of her, and she simply nodded.
As she got into the car and was driving off, in the rear mirror she
could see the police moving them along harshly.  Some would fight back
and end up dragged off to the jails to whatever would happen to them
there.

What was the old saying, one had to be cruel to be kind...and in
medicine as well as politics, it was hard to often tell between the
two and only the results were what mattered.

----------------
Actions:

Nothing really, just had to get something out since I'm already way late.

-- 
--I know there are no lifeguards in the gene pool, but damn, there
ought to be at least a few sharks in the water.