Day 327+, America and Ukraine – One person's opinion!
January 16, 2023, Letter 21
Dear Friends,
When I wrote my last letter about Russia and Ukraine, I never expected President Zalenskyy to come and speak to us, the American people, just a week later. However, if there ever were a world leader with an element of surprise, it would have to be Zalenskyy. I watched him address the joint session of Congress on CNN, the network that showed up first on my list of options. However, I wanted to refrain from listening to CNN for the after-show analysis, which is how I accidentally came upon the FOX News Tucker Carlson show. Years ago, I liked watching Fox because it was a more comfortable echo chamber for my value system and political inclinations.
I am an independent thinker. I lean toward a conservative viewpoint and libertarian ideals. Still, I also believe that socialist and idealistic values have a place in our society in small and localized doses. So, as you can imagine, over the last fourteen years, people like me have had difficulty finding a comfortable echo chamber for our thoughts. This is because the media created two types of networks, those that support the current political establishment and those that do not. For the first, almost uniformly, the current system can do no wrong, and for the latter, it can do no right. During prior presidential administrations, all key media players were the same. Still, their positions changed sides, as it had from the administration before that. Now, this polarized media has become absurd on most topics that matter. So now I and most people I know no longer watch major networks.
The more I listen to Fox News talking heads, the more I am reminded of the Russia Today (RT) network, almost as if Tucker himself was one of the RT's talking heads. After hearing Tucker's opinion about Zalenskyy's appearance, lack of tact, and overall disrespect toward the United States and its leadership, I spent about an hour surfing channels searching for a truly unbiased and balanced analysis. However, all I found were idealistic praises for his speech.
Nowhere, besides our dining room table, did I find a balanced review of Zalenskyy's speech or his visit to the US.
My wife and I agreed that Zalenskyy's first trip outside Ukraine was a huge sign of respect toward America. However, we disagreed about his attire; as you may have guessed, I thought the Ukrainian presidential sweatshirt Zalenskyy wore was perfectly appropriate, while Rimma (and my daughter, Rozie) thought he should have worn a suit. In addition, our family was evenly split on his use of humor at the time of war. Despite these little disagreements, though, we all still thought his surprise appearance in Washington was a great step forward in Ukraine's march toward becoming an equal player among the world powers and further cementing the American support in the fight against the totalitarian world order led by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.
Today's world leaves no room for standing on the sidelines. Unfortunately, some in America prefer our country to maintain neutrality. Still, I personally think this stance is naïve because it inadvertently aligns us with Russia. I would hate to see Tucker and other ultra-right talking heads fall into this misleading camp. I fear that the ultra-right has already become an unwilling participant in the famous story, "They came for the Ukrainians, but I did nothing; after all, I am not a Ukrainian." Or perhaps the ultra-right is simply promoting that we do nothing and instead become the spokespeople for the age-old bystander prophecy. For evil to flourish, it only takes good people to turn their heads and close their eyes.
I often question my commitment to supporting Ukraine. How much of that commitment is related to my affinity for the country of my birth? Would I still be so eager to help if I was born in Italy? I balance these questions with the knowledge that before 2006, the year I visited Ukraine for the first time after leaving the USSR, the only feeling I had toward the Former Soviet Union (FSU) was that of hate, or at best, indifference.
My past visits to Ukraine often followed my visits to Israel. The people of Israel and Ukraine both possess a great affinity for America, our people, culture, and values, and they try to emulate those values to unite our three countries. Each country certainly has its unique history, culture, and traditions. Still, the fundamental values of these nations are the same, making them universally worth fighting and dying for. We believe in individuals' inalienable rights. We value and choose to live in and do our part to participate in and sustain representative democracies with term limitations placed on all elected officials. We respect all people, and although we are imperfect nations, we all pursue the desire to be better for all of our citizens.
For the past eight years and before February 24, 2022, Ukraine was on a steady course toward joining a world of western style democratic nations. Meanwhile, Russia was busy poisoning its people with lies about its largest neighbor because it was losing its hold on Ukraine, which scared them. In expanding the war, Putin made many miscalculations. One of the biggest was underestimating the West's ability to unite in the face of the expansion of the modern-day Third Reich.
As citizens of the western world, we are fortunate that we are led by people who do not bury their heads in the sand and take a stand, albeit often hesitantly and meekly, on the right side of history.
The greatest impact of this war on America is the realization that the Cold War never ended. Not really. All it did was pause momentarily, and now our options have become clear: defeat the opposing side once and for all or live in a perpetual Cold War — under the never-ending threat of mutually assured destruction and having almost a third of our forces deployed to Europe. The fiscal cost of this alternative is much greater than the billions we invest in supporting Ukraine with weapons, humanitarian, and financial aid.
A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true…. Dr. Martin Luther King
Some Americans believe in parity among the parties to this war and that negotiations can bring peace to any conflict. My response to those is that not everything deserves tolerance and acceptance. Some people and countries are truly evil, even though good people live there. Some disagreements cannot be solved peacefully. To paraphrase my friend who took this quote from the late Golda Meyer: "they want to kill us, and we want to live… what is there to negotiate?"
On behalf of Share Ukraine and the Ukrainian People, I thank you for your support and friendship!
Glory to Ukraine.
Sam Rozenberg