I had this idea during a radio interview on Rhett Palmer’s popular podcast from Vero Beach, Florida, to do a video of Ukrainian kids asking Putin to please stop hurting them and their families. So far 14 Ukrainian children have been killed!
I wanted to record a child shivering in an underground shelter in Ukraine saying on camera something like this:
“Please stop, Mr. Putin. We’re all so afraid and my mom is crying. Even my doggie’s scared by all the bombs you’re dropping on us. Why, Mr. Putin?”
Right after my interview with Rhett known as Vero’sVoice, I called Oksana, one of my parttime staff who is from Ukraine.
I knew Oksana has many friends there and one I had heard is the CEO of the biggest TV channel in Ukraine.
Oksana loved the idea and said she would ask her friend if she could record videos for us of children appealing to Putin to stop the bloodshed by his military’s vicious, unprovoked attack on Ukrainian civilians.
“No problem,” Oksana said, and she jumped to it.
The next day, a saddened Oksana emailed me the following message:
“I reminded her two times, but she stopped answering the phone. I guess she evacuated with her family. It is almost impossible now to get out of Kiev…
I am so sorry I did not deliver what I promised.
“I still will be happy to contribute to any of your projects as a Ukrainian, journalist, and mother whose son is in Kiev alone, and whose friends are there sitting in metro stations, hiding from bombs, hungry, but strong.”
Like a lot of good ideas, mine needed some help to bring about for I had heard that Putin does have a fondness for children and pets.
So, maybe that’s the way to awaken whatever compassion he still has deep inside of him by hearing and seeing the pleas of innocent children.
They and other civilians are among the victims in his horrible, unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation and on children who have done nothing to deserve such deadly punishment.
For their sake, Mr. Putin, please stop!
Besides a veteran blogger, Tom Madden is a former journalist and an author of countless published articles and five books, including his latest, WORDSHINE MAN, available April on Amazon. He is the founder and CEO of TransMedia Group, an award-winning public relations firm serving clients worldwide since 1981 and has conducted remarkably successful media campaigns and crisis management for America’s largest companies and organizations.