Letter to the Editor
This letter was printed in the local paper 2 days ago. It looks like people are getting red-pilled, given her tears and moaning about people thinking the war in Ukraine is fake.
OPINION
Letter: How can we help the people in Ukraine?
April Crosby
As I’m sure many of you have noticed, the footage coming out of the Ukraine is absolutely heartbreaking. Children are being uprooted from their homes, cancer patients are going without treatment in bomb shelters and babies are being born on cement floors, far from hospitals.
You would think as Americans, being raised in privilege, we would feel an obligation to do something, but many of you don’t feel that way at all. You look at the war-ravaged cities and bloodied corpses on television and social media and dismiss it as “fake news." You rationalize the actions of Vladimir Putin rather than show some empathy for the Ukrainian people. You think it won’t ever be you, so it’s not your problem.
The only difference between you and a refugee is the simple matter of where you were born. That is it. My family — and I’m sure many other families — is here in the United States only because an ancestor fled tyranny. But we seem to have forgotten that. We boast about being American when most of us were given the privilege just by being born, and we don’t even try to empathize with those who were not.
Since the war on Ukraine began, I have contacted numerous local media outlets, charities and organizations wanting to know how I could help. I heard absolutely nothing back from any of them.
I went to my friends and family and asked if they knew how to help, and if they were willing to do their part. Again, I heard silence.
Have we given up on our values? Have we lost our empathy, our compassion for our fellow man? Have we become so engrossed with the partisan rhetoric that we even politicize what is clearly a genocide? We’re turning a blind eye to a nation in crisis because we would rather pretend it’s not happening or pretend that it was a provoked attack.
I expected to be disappointed in our federal government’s response — that’s just the way it goes. I didn’t expect to be disappointed by this county, this area. I thought we were the “help your neighbor” kind of people.
It turns out we only help our neighbor if they look like us, and share our opinions, or if they can cast a vote.