Go Beyond Sunflowers

March 10, 2022 in orange desk

(Photo by Justin Turveen)

Ukraine has been invaded by a Russian madman. You know this. Let us learn more.

First, here’s how Ukraine became Ukraine.
Let us say a prayer for Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky. And perhaps understand more about him.
An in-depth portrait of Putin from 2008 has provided me with some background I did not have. It is aptly called “Dead Soul.” It also illuminates how arbitrary leadership is, sometimes/often.
Here is how Putin thinks.
As people around the world watch in real time, a madman harnesses his power to kill a nation’s innocent people, a path paved in part for him by Donald Trump. We are all pawns in a world run by oligarchs and politicians whose focus is on remaining in power and building their own wealth.

This is no different than in the U.S. where we call our oligarchs billionaires and where politicians also play with human lives — as we have seen this past week in Texas when young trans lives were pawns for the re-election of conservatives.

What are we to do in a world like this? As a college student visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam decades ago, I wrote a single question from Alban Berg’s opera, “Wozzeck,” in the guest book as I left: “oh, what is there to cling to?”

We can cling to sunflowers but we must go beyond those symbols. We can cling to stories of people helping people in times of crisis. We can cling to the inalterable fact that most people are kind, decent, and generous to other living souls. We can be those people ourselves. We can expect kindness from others and teach generosity without borders. And we can give what we can to help.

Let us acknowledge that war affects people on this planet every single day. It is not enough to care for a people in whom we can see ourselves—we must open our hearts to care just as much for those we deem “unlike” us. This “otherness” is a myth. We are the same in all the ways that matter. Let us act accordingly.

How to Help Ukraine

This link provides a lot of options for learning about and helping Ukraine compiled by historian Timothy Snyder. Go there first.

The rest of these options for helping are from The Washington Post:

Doctors Without Borders, which works in conflict zones, is partnering with volunteers in Ukraine to help people travel to health-care facilities and working to ensure people have access to healthcare and medicine. Go to the link above to donate.

Journalists with the Kyiv Independent have done tremendous work covering the war, offering the world constant updates as they fear for themselves, their families, and their homes. The Independent has started a GoFundMe asking for support, but they’ve also promoted a separate GoFundMe — “Keep Ukraine’s media going” — for journalists around the country who have received less international attention. “[Ukraine’s reporters] have shown extraordinary courage, but the reality on the ground is that most operations cannot continue from Ukraine alone,” one organizer wrote. “This fundraiser is aimed at helping media relocate, set-up back offices and continue their operations from neighboring countries.”

Sunflower of Peace is a small nonprofit with ambitions to help Ukrainian orphans and internally displaced people. A post on its Facebook page in mid-February said it had launched a fundraiser for first-aid medical tactical backpacks. Each backpack, it says, can save up to 10 people. They’re packed with bandages and anti-hemorrhagic medicines, among other critical items.

Voices of Children, a charitable foundation based in Ukraine, has been serving the psychological needs of children affected by the war in the country’s east since 2015, according to its website. The group’s psychologists specialize in art therapy and provide general psychosocial support with group classes or individual sessions. Many of its psychologists are based in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, areas that have long been controlled by Russian-backed separatists and that are on the front lines of the current, wider conflict. Now, Voices of Children is providing assistance to children and families all over Ukraine, even helping with evacuations.

Help in whatever way you can. Learn more. Let empathy be your guide. Go beyond sunflowers.

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.