By MARSHA MERCER
The horrifying news from Ukraine has no end.
“Russian strike hits maternity hospital,” read the
banner headline on page one of Thursday’s Washington Post.
“Conditions Worsen in Ukraine as War Enters 3rd Week,”
was the dispiriting, early headline on The New York Times site. High-level
talks between Russia and Ukraine failed again to agree on allowing civilians safe
passage to escape the carnage, much less on a deal to end the fighting.
Meanwhile, more than 2.3 million people have somehow managed
to flee the war-torn country, the U.N. reported Thursday.
In our nuanced age, few situations are black and white,
but Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, immoral, brutal assault on Ukraine has united
most of the world against him.
President Joe Biden announced the United States will
no longer buy Russian oil and gas, following stiff economic sanctions by the
West against Russia and its oligarchs. Apple, McDonald’s and Starbucks, among
others, have ceased sales in Russia.
All these actions are welcome but have not stopped
Putin’s aggression.
What fresh hell is next? Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky is everyone’s candidate for Person of the Year, but the “no-fly” zone
he desperately wants is apparently a non-starter. The West cannot risk
escalating the conflict with an unpredictable foe armed with nuclear weapons.
And so we watch, united in unalloyed anger, as the
suffering intensifies. Public buildings glow blue and yellow. Blue and yellow
ribbons wave on tree branches. The Ukrainian flag flies. A hand lettered sign
in a window in my neighborhood reads:
“Putin
“Liar
“Killer.”
That sums him well. I would add monster and madman.
And yet our daily lives continue apace. Truckers drive
around Washington’s Beltway to protest pandemic restrictions that are ending
anyway.
Biden warned gas prices, which have been rising
overnight, would rise still more with the cut-off of Russian oil.
The national average
price of a gallon of gas was $4.318 Thursday, and the average cost for a gallon
of regular in Virginia was $4.241, according to AAA. No one knows how high prices will go or how pain at the pump will affect
tourism and other parts of the economy that were just starting to recover.
So far, most Americans – 63% -- are willing to pay more
at the pump to support democracy in Ukraine, a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken March
7-8 reported.
One in four said they’d
pay “as much as it takes,” 11% said they’d pay $2 more a gallon than currently,
32% would pay $1 to $2 more and 31% said they were willing to pay less than $1.
One wonders how long support will last, though, if the
cost of nearly everything keeps soaring. Prices rose 7.9% over the past year,
the highest level in four decades. The February inflation report released
Thursday reflects prices before the war in Ukraine.
Many Republicans condemn the Russian invasion, and
even Biden’s predecessor has stopped
calling Putin “smart” and “savvy.” The Reuters/Ipsos survey also found 80% of Americans
want political leaders to provide a unified front in support of Ukraine instead
of attacking their rivals.
But political fighting has not taken a vacation.
Congressional Republicans wrongly blame Democrats for high gas prices, claiming
Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and other policies have hiked
prices. Fact-checkers say those policies are not to blame.
The National Republican Congressional Committee lashed out
at Democratic Reps. Elaine Luria, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton of Virginia for
doing “nothing” about high gas prices. “Their war on American energy is to
blame for the pain Virginians are feeling at the pump,” the NRCC tweeted.
Oh, please.
What can individuals do now? We can try not to
complain (too much) about the price of gas and remember who really is to blame.
We can donate to charities that are bravely helping
Ukraine and Ukrainians who have fled their country. Beware, though, despicable
scam artists who use names similar to reputable charities to trick donors.
We can prepare to welcome the Ukrainian refugees who
want to settle here. And we can steel ourselves to conditions getting worse,
and maybe a lot worse, in Ukraine.
Now is the time to take a stand. If Putin wins in
Ukraine, where will his lust for former Soviet territories stop?
And we can learn from Russian author Leo Tolstoy, who
wrote in “War and Peace,” the two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
Let them be on our side.
© 2022 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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