An unimaginable number of innocent people are having their life torn apart by pride, greed, ignorance and hatred in an illegal display of horrendous violence that may culminate in the death of millions. It has already dissolved the notion in many, many, minds that peace is possible in this world. Even the word ‘Peace’ has become archaic. It is a word for a future time.

Contending factions are fighting for control; the prevailing attitude of the enemy is jubilation and enthusiasm, for their leader desires to reinstall the glory of their Motherland. The hope of the oppressed is to escape to another land. It is true that problems and difficulties exist for those who stay and for those who leave, but the probability of dying for those who stay is greater. The need for justice and the right to independence, language and identity raise the arms of the strong to fight for what is theirs by way of legal ownership. They are the arms of husbands; husbands who cut hair, sell shoes, teach children, fix cars and farm the land. These simple men; fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, lovers, friends, neighbors and strangers have no experience as soldiers, handling weapons, machine guns and rocket launchers, but they feel in their guts that they must, for the enemy wants their freedom, their language, their country, the customs, the beliefs, those things which are the Ukrainian Reality – the enemy wants this Reality gone.

The women cry. The children cry. I am crying. I am not there. I am not Ukrainian.

I know grief.

Grief is necessary. Grief is a healing process. That is, the acute grief diminishes, but it is the loss which causes us to sorrow on, never coming to its’ end. A grief counselor will assure you, that provided you maintain your perspective, you will, come through the grief to the other side. The state of disbelief that those left alive find themselves in will morph into a state of acceptance. The women and children, even the men who survive, may find they are stronger. Grief can and often does give birth to empathy. It did for me and others like me. Together may our collective Humanity answer the words below.

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