Commentary

Marriott, Zelensky Stand Up For What's Right

by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, April 24, 2025

The world needs more “truth to power” spoken today. With so many core human values under siege, we have too much silence. We have too much quiet complicity -- and too many compromising their principles.

So I applaud Marriott’s CEO, Anthony Capuano, and Ukraine’s President Zelensky for standing up for what is right -- even if you don’t always equate running one of the world’s largest hotel brands with leading a country fighting for its survival.

At a moment when so many large corporations can’t scrape the letters DEI off their websites fast enough, Capauno met with his team to discuss how to deal with the government’s threat against equality initiatives, and then made the following public statement that reflected on the principles the company has followed for its almost 100-year history:

“The winds blow, but there are some fundamental truths for those 98 years," Capuano said. “We welcome all to our hotels and we create opportunities for all -- and fundamentally those will never change. The words might change, but that’s who we are as a company.”

And the response? Overnight, his computer was swamped with 40,000 emails, all from company associates, all saying “thank you.”

Zelensky has spent months trying to appease the U.S. government’s ever-increasing -- and inexplicable -- demands for unilateral concessions to the Russian invaders, which culminated in demands for Ukraine to surrender the sovereign territory Russia has stolen. Threatened with the loss of all U.S. financial, military and intelligence support should he not accept these demands, Zelensky said no. His statement was simple: “This violates our constitution.”

Zelensky understands that Ukraine’s soldiers and civilians are dying for something much bigger than a transactional war. “Ukraine is fighting for its country, for its future, for its survival,” as U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania), a strident Ukraine supporter, wrote today.

Ironically, Zelensky is assuming the mantle that the U.S. used to carry forth, leading the free world in the fight for freedom, democracy and the rule of law, and against autocracy and oppression.

Who will be next to stand up for what is right, as Marriott and Zelensky did?

11 comments about "Marriott, Zelensky Stand Up For What's Right".

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Roger Baker from NAPCO Media, April 24, 2025 at 1:28 p.m.
Hopefully more follow their excellent example. We need people of courage like this.
Reply

Latha Sarathy from Salient HQ, April 24, 2025 at 1:29 p.m.

So true! We need more brave souls to defend basic human rights

Leslye Schumacher from Vici Media, April 24, 2025 at 1:37 p.m.

Thank you Dave, for having the courage to write this. You are a man of principle and it shows.

Jim Holt from Holt2 Enterprises, April 24, 2025 at 1:44 p.m.

What is "inexplicable" about nearly $200B?

Mark Sutton from NHR, April 24, 2025 at 2:16 p.m.

How is Zelensky fighting for democracy when he has banned elections and banned opposition political parties?

That's not standing up for democracy. That's fascism.

Barbara Lippert from mediapost.com, April 24, 2025 at 2:51 p.m.

I've enjoyed your column, Kaila! Always thoughtful and thought-inspiring. Best of luck for hte future!

Ben B from Retired replied, April 24, 2025 at 9:42 p.m.

You sound like Russian media Putin is the fascist not Zelensky when there is bombings night & day in Ukraine they can't have elections.

Ben B from Retired, April 24, 2025 at 10:06 p.m.

I don't see an end in sight which is very sad Putin needs to leave Ukraine and needs to give Ukraine back its land along with kidnapping the kids.

Dave Morgan from Simulmedia replied, April 25, 2025 at 4:05 a.m.

Mark, thanks for the comment. The Ukraine Constitution forbids national elections during martial law. The moment the Russian invaders withdraw significantly, you will certainly see martial law lifted and elections happen quickly, the parliament and Zelensky have both declared it. Of course, the Russians, and now the US government, have helped turn Zelensky from an acceptabily popluar presdient there into very, very popular president, not unlike what the world saw with Churchill in England in WW2.

Mark Sutton from NHR, April 25, 2025 at 7:50 a.m.

Martial law is supposed to last only 90 days, not indefinetly. Zelensky and his cronies have abused this for him to assume a dicatorship.

Other countries have held elections during wartime, including Israel, the UK, and the United States. Heck, Lincoln held elections in 1862 and 1864 when over half the country was occupied by the Confederacy. Zelensky himself was elected when the Crimea was occupied.

And it's still no excuse for Zelensky for banning opposition parties, including parties that oppose Russia's invasion. That's not democracy - that's fascism.

Donald Frazier from OneVideo Technology replied, April 28, 2025 at 2:55 p.m.

Thanks for the history. But it's not very analogous to Ukraine's current situation.

Imagine bands of German commandos, likely born and raised here, had penetrated the White House to assassinate President Roosevelt and his staff until they were killed in gunfights, perhaps in the China Room. Russia had ruled Ukraine outright until only a few decades earlier, and leaving its puppet Yanukovich in charge until he was run out.

Strong word, puppet. After shooting several dozen unarmed citizens to keep in power, failing, and fleeing to Russia, I think it applies.

You used another strong word, cronies. That sounds like Zelensky runs a crooked regime and wants to keep it that way. Like all of the former Soviet Bloc nations, Ukraine inherited a bureaucracy so dysfunctional that corruption was the only was anything got done. It's changing now, a requirement of Ukraines' new partners in the EU and the Ukrainian people themselves. Weapons, for example, depend on it.