Doctor Curmudgeon® Who Am I?

By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist

Today, we are honored to have a guest editor.

He is my cousin on the canine side of the family. Those of you who have had the fortitude to read these columns know that he is the brilliant Siberian Husky, Sir Galahad (in a future column, I do intend to delve into his background and explain the derivation of his title of “Sir.”)

He wrote this piece in the voice of another individual who he felt must be heard.

I was born on a cold winter day on January 25, 1978; and it makes me 44 years old.

Although I graduated with a law degree, I segued into comedy. With so many dark clouds gathering over my beloved country, I needed to search for humor. I discovered that I had a talent for comedy, for helping people to laugh and to forget for a brief time, the ominous events surrounding us.

For a while, I was a comedian, but then I created a company that produced cartoons and films.

Surprisingly, I really found my voice in a television series that appeared from 2015 to 2019.

This series became immensely popular. It was called “Servant of the People.” I was now an actor playing the part of a history teacher who became President of an Eastern European country.

I am a Jew and I have had relatives who served in the Soviet Red Army and who have died in the Holocaust. I was raised right here, in Southeastern Ukraine. And as a friend of my mine, Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, said recently, “I mean, he is Ukrainian in all of his heart, but he’s also Jewish.”

Politically, I am an independent and I am a political outsider.

I understand the implications of Putin saying that he is attempting to “de-nazify” my beloved Ukraine. But, as I have said and I quote myself, “How can I be a Nazi? Explain it to my grandfather, who went through the entire war in the infantry of the Soviet army, and died a colonel in an independent Ukraine.”

I was informed by Ned Price who is a spokesperson for the United States State Department that I am a “prime target for Russian aggression.”

I am aware of that and I have said that “according to our information, the enemy marked me as target No.1, my family – as target No.2. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state.”

When the United States offered to evacuate my family, I declined their offer and told them: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”

There are those who have referred to me as some comedian.

But this is who I am.

I stand up proudly to proclaim that I am Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky, a Ukrainian..

Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.

Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon

. ** Note from Galahad:  “The information that enabled me to write this piece was obtained from two canine friends with whom I have been corresponding.  They are Nora and Petya Zelensky, citizens of Ukraine and important members of the President’s family. They requested that I write about their father and they, too, are proud Ukrainians.”