Facts, photos, and figures are powerful, no matter their source or intent, and over the past weeks the images and numbers coming out of Ukraine have been sad, troubling, and unimaginable. As the world watched helplessly, our neighbors were driven from their homes, their cities were bombed and utterly destroyed, and not only has it gotten worse, this is only the beginning.
I know enough about Russia’s relationships in that area of the world to be dangerous, but I suspect we all agree that having to leave our homes and watching pregnant mothers and children die is wrong on any level.
My heavy travel schedule came to a screeching halt in March 2020 because of COVID but I could stay home, safe, and secure, while the world grappled with this deadly scourge. I could choose to see my family after vaccinations and/or have the things I treasured around me.
With this war/invasion—for lack of better words–if you look at the pictures and listen to the news reports, millions of people are clumped together, going nowhere fast, dejected, and harried because everything they have known and hold dear was destroyed. Even if the conflict ends today, for too many there is no home or homeland to return to.
Millions, that’s like everybody you, your parents, grandparents, and generations we can’t count— everybody you have ever known or can imagine, is hungry, cold, homeless, and clutching their children and whatever they could grab and fleeing in the middle of the night. It’s like every disaster you’ve ever read about—starving and dying Ethiopians, hurricane and tornado-ravaged Haiti, massacres, and tsunamis—no horror is too great to remember when it comes to what we see nightly on the national news.
Diplomacy didn’t work though I prayed it would, but I am thankful President Biden has moved cautiously with U.S. might so we can avoid World War III. Somehow the folks who are calling for stiffer penalties and use of more powerful weapons forget that no matter what we expect or how we define “winning,” in war, NOBODY wins.
The people–our neighbors and friends, families, and generations to come—suffer from decisions to drop bombs and create casualties and “collateral damage.”
When/whether Mr. Putin finds an off-ramp, as pundits are calling an opportunity for him to save face, we must call on other world leaders to help end this humanitarian crises. There is no way we can fully restore homes, hopes, and dreams but we can join hands, stand in solidarity, and try.
Businesses and corporations in Russia and the people who work in them are suffering because of sanctions and other penalties through no fault of their own. Like I said, in war nobody wins. Leaders make war and citizens suffer the consequences.
As this conflict lingers, as journalists risk their lives to tell these important stories, let’s not wring our hands and watch silently. Let’s pray for the Ukrainian men who stay behind to protect their homes and homeland though they’re not soldiers or fighters.
Let’s write letters of support or encouragement to those who are working for peace. Let’s donate funds for refugee resettlement and humanitarian relief for the sick, elderly and especially the innocents—the children–who will be scarred forever by what they see and endure.
Philosopher Edmund Burke is often credited with the words “ “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Today I pray we will be among the good men and women who do something worth writing about.
To give: https://umcmission.org/umcor/ukraine
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