"Why go to Astrakhan?.."

Today in Volgograd the weather was wonderful - sunny and somewhere around +22. I went about my business all day, and in the evening I came and saw on the Internet that, it turns out, people from all over the country were going or were already going to Astrakhan to support the hungry. Those who feel worse and worse and need help. Now, it seems, Navalny has already left, and other media personalities have shown interest...

This initiative is important and necessary, especially its relevance became clear after the visit to Astrakhan of Parfenov, Shkumatov and Glinka - andthe report of Doctor Lisa on the condition of the hungry. Somewhere in Russia people are dying, trying to achieve justice not only for themselves, but, by and large, for all of us , and for 3 weeks now, everyone almost doesn’t give a damn - it shouldn’t be like this.

Despite the late hour, I dialed the number of my old friend, a classmate, now he is the editor-in-chief of one of the Volgograd news portals. That is, I emphasize, an active journalist. Since I arrived home (for more than a month now), we have not been able to meet: we live on different ends of Volgograd, and our city is very long, and, despite our high levels of employment, we still haven’t been able to cross paths.

I'm calling. “Hello. Listen, don’t you want to go to Astrakhan? I was thinking - go, or what? Come with me? We’ll see you at the same time :)” - “Why go to Astrakhan?..” - “Well, why? , I don’t know, people are starving there” - “Oh, these... Let them starve, what do we care about...” - “Well, how... They can die” - “Yes, they’re socialists, these are us. they’ll survive” - “What difference does it make if they’re socialists? They’re neighbors. I’d go, it’s not far away...” - “So what if they’re neighbors? Why do we need these Astrakhan people to have their own problems?”

He's right, of course. There are plenty of problems of our own (and some of them, by the way, have also been quite actively discussed in the federal blogosphere lately). And he, as a journalist, doesn’t know about this. But shouldn’t he, as a journalist, understand the importance of the situation with the Astrakhan residents in the all-Russian sense?.. I understand everything: warmth relaxes, but not to the same extent!..

In general, it’s quite difficult for me to comment on all this. He's my longtime friend, and to be honest, I'm disappointed. It's an unpleasant feeling. But I won’t judge anyone here - after all, I don’t know yet whether I’ll end up going there myself. Because yes, there is work, yes, there is no time. Let's see, in general.

But I want to express words of support to those starving in Astrakhan and gratitude to those Muscovites, St. Petersburgers, Yekaterinburgers and residents of other cities who, judging by the groups on social networks , are now getting ready to hit the road.

As for Astrakhan residents, they supposedly are not active themselves (such information is now being circulated here and there on the Internet as confirmation that the trip is unnecessary). This is wrong. Last Saturday, a car rally and rally in support of the hungry took place in Astrakhan. And what’s nice: some of the cars in this rally had Volgograd license plates. Well, at least someone, thank God...