Excellent-- a hero! All it takes is a little bravery. Of course, he should refuse to play WuFlu theater himself under any circumstance, but I give him a ton of credit for sacrificing his job for his principles. I would have liked to hear the full, uncut audio that the reporter recorded with him-- but I suppose that's asking too much.

A partial aside: I don't recall if I've ever posted this before, but as it's been passed down through the family and relayed to me, I'm evidently a direct descendant of Severyn Nalyvaiko-- apparently, there are statues devoted to him in the very village from which my mother's family emigrated a few generations ago. I can't write my mother's maiden name online due to "cancel culture", but the name is very close to "Nalyvaiko", which lends further credence to the story.

It would also explain why my family is so filled with anti-authoritarian, independently-spirited people: my great grandparents-- my mother's father's parents-- were moonshiners during "prohibition", and my grandfather had many amusing stories of his parents evading the police during his childhood, one involving the flattening of a hot pie into the face of a cop entering the house; my grandfather himself was notoriously opposed to doctors, police, and other "authorities"; all eight of his children, my mother included, have strong libertarian or anti-authoritarian leanings.

And then of course you have me. It's too early to tell with my son, but judging by my daughter's "no nonsense" disposition and character, she's well set to carry on the family character.

Back to Nalyvaiko himself: it's too bad there was no concept of a photograph in his time, it'd be fascinating to see a picture of him. Interestingly, Fedir Mazepa, who was executed alongside Nalyvaiko, has confirmed descendents who look an awful lot like my own family, especially Anna Politkovskaya who in many photographs could pass as an aunt of mine: so minimally, the Ukrainian look runs deep in my blood.