Hello,
before posting the message from rubyist Victor Shepelev from
Kharkiv, Ukraine
allow me to restate:
If you openly support (and defend) the brutal attack and invasion
by Vladmir Putin than the list admin should not think twice to kick
you off the list
(this is not a life-long ban):
Now the appeal (and message) from Victor Shepelev from Kharkiv, Ukraine:
March, 3rd, 2022
I am Victor Shepelev from Kharkiv, Ukraine, also known as @zverok
(Twitter, GitHub).
I am writing in Ruby since 2003; I maintain several libraries and Ruby
Changelog. You might’ve met me on several international conferences,
/r/ruby and elsewhere. This year I also applied to be Ruby commiter
this year and was honored to be approved. I am working on Ruby
documentation improvement (as well as invented several minor
features), here is a summary of my work for the language.
I was always feeling welcome in the community, despite my origin from
Eastern Europe, hot temper and less-than-ideal English.
I tried to never mix my tech/Ruby persona with my peronal life and
life of my country, which was not easy, especially for last years. But
today, everything is different.
I write to Ruby community in days of war Russia leads against my
country. Not some “special operation”, or political turmoil, or local
conflicts. It is full-scale agressive war, and dirty one: with bombing
of cities with Grads (reactive artillery), aerial bombs and flying
missiles. With demolished hospitals, schools, and living quarters.
With thousand of civilians dead, wounded or displaced. With tanks
going through cities. With whole small towns leveled with earth.
I am no hero. I am sheltering with my family (wife, three daughers,
two cats, and a dumb dog) in Kharkiv, which is constantly bombarded
and attacked with armoured batallions. We have deep cellar where we
are sitting during bombardments, my family still has food, electricity
and running water. Half of the city doesn’t have even this. Many dead.
City center in ruins.
We are still standing.
We need your help.
I am not asking you to stop living your comfortable lifes, writing
your blogs, visiting your conferences and fighting your usual enemies
like scammers and sexists.
I am not asking you to go here to fight, or to give all your money, or
even to ban Russian companies and individuals from your services
(though the latter would be suitable sometimes).
I am just asking you to spread the word and show the support.
We need international support: political, military, humanitarian, and
to have this, we need as many people to be aware what’s happening
there as humanly possible.
So, at the very least, please tell what’s happening and that you support us.
Don’t write that to me in private. I appreciate your concern, but I
don’t need that, currently.
Please just publish a message. Any message. In your Twitters, on your
mailing list, on top of your sites. That’s easy to do and costs
nothing. It is not “political affiliation” or “entangling in local
politics”. It is just about stopping the war. We need it to reach
every politician, every representative, every humanitarian
organization, everybody who can do something substantial.
I could add a megaton of disturbing photos here to strengthen the message.
But I’ll just add two: my family in shelter and the central square of
my city bombed a few days ago.
More @ Appeal to Ruby community from Kharkiv Rubyist
If anyone keeps spreading (and defending) the lies that justify
the war of the brutal Vladimir Putin regime - you know what to do.
If that will not stop the war than prepare and start thinking the
unimaginable (escalation that will happen).
Cheers. Prost.