March 18, 2022
For more than three weeks now, we have watched in impotent despair as Russia has assaulted Ukraine, literally trying to bomb it into submission. Frustrated by Ukrainians’ steadfast refusal to surrender their sovereignty and embarrassed by ground forces beset by ineptitude and morale problems, Russia has resorted to targeting civilians for death and destruction, indiscriminately bombing hospitals, theaters and apartment buildings.
Confronted by barbarism on such a massive scale, we all want to do something, yet whatever we can actually do seems puny in response. The blue and yellow lights on buildings and bridges in foreign capitals are cold comfort to the 3 million refugees with nowhere to live. Armchair military strategists call for a “No Fly Zone,” blithely dismissing the folly of provoking a hot war with the country with the largest nuclear stockpile in the world.
There are no easy answers. While the United States and the European Union have shown admirable unity, getting arms to Ukraine and imposing punishing economic sanctions to isolate Russia, Russian attacks on civilians have only escalated. After decades of happily allowing Russian oligarchs to purchase yachts, luxury real estate and football clubs with their ill-gotten gains, the West is finally saying that the cost of this blood money is too high, (Source: “ Abramovich flies into Moscow as yachts are seized and caviar banned in hit to Russia’s rich,” by Catarina Demony, Francesco Guariscio, and Ali Kucukgocmen, Reuters.com, 3/15/22).
Last week, President Biden banned the importation of Russian oil and gas. Sadly rather than using this opportunity to aggressively embrace renewable energy and address climate change, the administration announced that it would entertain purchasing oil from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, two countries with abysmal human rights records, (Source: “Biden announces ban on Russian energy imports,” by Kaitlan Collins, Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak, Phil Mattingly, MJ Lee and Kate Sullivan, CNN.com, 3/8/22).
In fairness to Biden, that decision was probably driven as much by pragmatism as by shortsightedness. After all, a nation in which nearly half of the people rejected the mild inconvenience of wearing a mask to halt the spread of a deadly pathogen could not be counted on to endure sacrifice for a nation of people half a world away.
Yet, if we are unable to take action that decisively ends this horrific war and preserves Ukrainian sovereignty, it provides an opportunity for us to reflect on what America has become and what we truly want it to be. We are transfixed by the courage and selflessness of Volodymyr Zelenskyy because we are awash in politicians who only seek office to gain undeserved fame or the power to persecute (and sometimes both). Even the few who genuinely seek to serve the public are unwilling to risk re-election, let alone their lives, to do so.
Americans feel vicariously ennobled by the actions of ordinary Ukrainians who are taking up arms to preserve the things we say we stand for, but here in America, we use AK-47s to deprive people of freedom, not to fight for it. Our most watched cable news show is hosted by a white supremacist Putin apologist. We sit on our hands as state after state passes laws depriving Black and Brown people of the right to vote. Last week, the Florida legislature approved the creation of an “election police force” to address the nonexistent crime of voter fraud. Texas threw out an alarming 13% of mail-in ballots in its primary this month, thanks to strict new voter suppression laws. Meanwhile, those already in office use their power to criminalize gender affirming healthcare for transgender youth and ban them from participating in school sports, effectively trying to legislate them out of existence.
So yes, we should applaud the brave citizens of Ukraine. We should condemn Putin as a murderous autocrat who is committing war crimes. By all means we should give generous assistance to Ukrainian refugees, and while we’re at it, welcome and assist non-European refugees fleeing autocracy and persecution. Yet, as Americans simultaneously cheer the brave people of Ukraine, while maintaining a stunning silence in the face of escalating attacks on democracy at home, we have to ask, “Do we only cheer democracy when everyone who stands to benefit is white?”
Well said Lisa. I wish we had seen the same response for Syrian refugees. It does beg the question.