Remembering

Photo and artwork by Sophie Walker

Three years ago today, Fox News shouted this headline:

Russian forces attacking Kyiv, explosions heard in Ukrainian capital

There are many headlines to choose from to remember how it came about that Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, but the Fox news headline is appropriate for this post, because there seems to be some confusion among Republican leaders, especially the one who has proclaimed himself “king,” regarding the provenance of the Ukraine War with Russia.

Republicans seem to prefer the “spin” Fox News puts on news, so why not go with the medium of GOP choice? It proclaimed Russian forces attacked Kyiv, February 24, 2022. Fox News did not suggest the Ukrainians deserved to be attacked. Fox News didn’t report that the Ukrainians started the war all by themselves. Fox News at that time seemed to know who the aggressor was and why.

The leader of the Republican party recently said, “You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. ... You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.” He was apparently addressing the leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 1

Ukraine did not start the war. If the leader of the Republicans wants us to think otherwise, he will need to start with recent history dating to February 2014, when Russia seized Crimea. Ukraine didn’t initiate that aggression either. He (the leader of the Republican Party) also has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” who holds power without consent of the Ukrainian people. Zelenskyy is not a dictator, and he holds power legally. He was elected to a five-year term in 2019, but there was no election in 2024 because Ukrainian law prohibits an election during a period of martial law, which is the current situation in Ukraine. 2

Why would the leader of the Republican Party make up a story about who started the war? Why does he revise recent history to suit his whim or his fancy or his delusion? I wish I knew. Why would anyone go along with his ideas? I wish I knew that, too.

Many Americans have very personal memories about Russia’s aggression. The photo above, for example, is one of many small pieces of artwork my friend made in order to raise a few thousand dollars for the Ukrainian people back in 2022. Using “found objects” — simple scraps of things found here and there, even on the street in some cases — my friend made many such small art pieces and then assembled a cadre of supporters of Ukraine to purchase the artwork or simply to donate money. Some wrote a brief personal message on the back of the cards to let people in Ukraine know there was at least awareness in the West of their plight, and broad sympathy for their struggle. No one can revise this simple fact: All across the United States in 2022 people lamented the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and expressed their outrage, sympathy, and support.

Now, on the third anniversary of the war Russia’s Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin started, few Americans want to have history of a brutal authoritarian’s attack on a much weaker neighbor revised to suit some political objective of a newly elected United States president. If a U.S. leader longs for the old days and wants to make things good again, why not retain our democracy? Why not speak the truth?

Most Americans do not want a change to the U.S. Constitution to permit a third presidential term. Two is plenty. Most Americans do not want an authoritarian leader. Most Americans do not want a monarchy; no king for America. Most Americans do not want an executive branch of government that has no checks and balances. Most Americans like the way the founders set the government up so that three branches would check each other and avoid concentration of power. Most Americans like their government the way it has been for a very long time, and if they think something ought to be changed, they accept that there are legal means to do so.

Many writers have recently lamented the changes going on. The change in attitude about the Russian war against Ukraine is just one. But there are other concerns as well. How can the current president be so wrong about something that happened so recently? Is the president senile? Is he delusional?

I wonder if it is time to create a louder, collective voice against the turn of attitude toward Ukraine and Russia. Perhaps it’s time to speak against a president who would suggest that no inoculations against polio or measles are needed. Perhaps a louder collective voice should declare that a monarchy is not what we the people want. Nor do we want to be ruled by oligarchs. Nor do we wish to have extensive power delegated to one rich man who has no accountability to the wishes of the people. Nor do we wish to proclaim that research at our universities is no longer helpful. Nor do we want to see a trade fight initiated with our neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Nor do we want to weaken our long alliance with European friends. Nor do we want state operated media that reports only what the president wants. Nor, believe it or not, do we want a strong-man who seems to think his power is omnipotent.

At the very least, it’s time to give some serious thought to what’s going on. As historian Timothy Snyder puts it, “The divide in politics today is between unreality and reality. Those who seek to rule the world blur human experience and smudge memory, making cooperation and friendship laughable and unthinkable.” 3

We the people need to think this through and quickly. We can and do disagree on policy, we worship as we like and in a variety of ways, and there are modernistic cultural changes we do not appreciate. But American democracy is the oldest in the world because it has worked, messily at times, but well overall. We the people do not want to toss it away, and we the people intend to prevail peacefully and legally.