Democracy's Defenders
We have a role in this fight and our weapons are still just words
The world is learning what resistance to autocracy looks like. It’s horrific. Yet Zelensky’s and the Ukrainian people’s courage and dedication is unbelievable. How can we possibly rise to honor these protectors of democracy?
In 1956 there was another uprising against Soviet oppression, in Hungary.
My mother was born in 1909, the first child in her Hungarian family to be born in the United States during a wave of non-English speaking European immigration. Her family lived in Pittsburgh.
In 1956 I was 13 and remember my relatives excitedly talking about the uprising “back home” against the Stalinist-backed government. Encouraged by the United States, the Hungarian people went ahead. Then the Russian army moved in on them, as ruthlessly as it did on the Ukrainians 11 days ago. But in 1956 the United States failed to aid Hungary as promised. In 12 days the Soviets crushed the people and their hopes for democracy.
But this time in 2022 it’s different. This time President Biden with our allies are prepared. The Ukrainian people have the free world’s united support. After 6 years of encroaching authoritarianism in America, we know that Ukraine is fighting for the life of democracy everywhere. We owe them gratitude for demonstrating the profound courage it takes to stand and oppose a brutal autocrat.
Because January 6th failed, Americans are not fighting in the streets today with homemade Molotov cocktails, although the Ukrainians are showing us how to do that.
So how do we defend democracy when our spirit is being stunned by the latest far-right outrage? We’re also bewildered by liberal headlines that say Biden is failing. These things are not the truth.
I believe Democrats are not as helpless as the media sometimes says we are.
Our best weapons in defense of democracy are words. Words to our neighbors about what’s okay and not okay, words on signs about human values at Moral Monday, words in letters to the editor and on postcards to voters.
Eleven days ago Heather Cox Richardson’s voice seemed to break for her love of democracy, which is now being defended by Ukrainians with their lives. I think she was saying that we Americans are capable of the same fight.
But, she warned,
The minute you think you are helpless, you are.
We know what matters and we know how to say it. We have work to do at home, and we’re lucky it’s still with words.
"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." --Tom Stoppard, British playwright
Thank you, Deda - beautifully said