Airplanes, Black Boxes, and the Chocolate King

Kansas City, KA – Just a few months ago, Flight 370 was lost, and despite Ocean Shield and all the Shaws’, Presidents’, and Kings’ men, it still hasn’t been found, and no one knows why.

In a terrible, unfortunate, and saddening turn of events, we are reminded of the final scene of the film Hunt for Red October. After the breathtaking hunt for the submarine Red October, which is finally found, we hear the ambassador ask “Do you mean to tell me you’ve lost another one?” Well, we've lost another one. Another flight has gone down, Flight 17, and again, no one knows why.

The loss of life is tragic, and the stories continue. Now the Black Boxes appear to have been found. John Kerry, our secretary of state is stating that evidence points towards Russia, or at least Russian involvement.

There are stories of desecration of bodies, of thievery, of tampering with evidence, and of much more, including a story I read that popped up briefly stating the bodies had been dead for days before the crash, before it disappeared from Huffington Post. I am sure the wild theories will get worse from there.

But a light has been shown, now, in glaring colors upon those that are holding these cities. These riotous rebels. They call themselves the Donetsk People’s Republic, maybe thinking that if they give themselves a nice democratic sounding name they will get more support.

But now we are finding that there does not seem to be much that is very nice about them. They are apparently handling the crash site as drunken men, both figuratively, and, it seems, at times, literally. As drunken soldiers stumble through the site.

The world has been reminded that on Ukrainian ground, there are violent rebels, causing atrocities, unrest, and killing. As Ukraine tries to take back its borders and hold the ones it still has, the world has again been reminded of the conflict, with the loss of their own loved ones.

Petro Poroshenko is the new president of Ukraine. He is a former Chocolate King, making billions in the industry of making our favorite sweet. Since the possible shoot-down of Flight 17, and then the gross mishandling by the rebels of the incident, his nation has, in a sense, been vindicated in the world’s eyes. It took the conflict coming to us for the widespread outrage to begin at these “Separatists.” But now President Poroshenko has a golden opportunity. It is such a great one that he could have written the script himself.

Andrew C. Abbott