The brave people of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky have shown me something this week.
They have reminded me what heroism is, and we are all witness to incredible courage. Most people don’t get to see what that actually looks like.
I’m now old enough to have seen US troops deployed numerous times. I won’t try to understand the decisions of our policy makers, but I do know there is no questioning the valor of our men and women in uniform.
But with the exception of 9/11, there hasn’t been a situation where my homeland has been directly threatened, to my limited knowledge and understanding at least.
This isn’t by accident, it’s due to the constant vigilance of those who serve.
But across the Atlantic Ocean, in Ukraine, I have witnessed something else entirely; people fighting for their home soil. People fighting for their families. People fighting for their nation and what it stands for.
As a father to young children, this hit me hard. Seeing parents say goodbye to their children only to turn around with grim determination and tears in their eyes to pick up their rifles to defend their country against an unjust invasion was jarring.
It is now more clear than ever that I take many things for granted.
This week has been a grim reminder that there are people and forces out there who do not want you to have peace, freedom, safety and self-determination.
I’m not sure if there is some existential battle between good and evil in the universe. I’m not sure if devils and angels wage some supernatural war on this fair Earth or in the skies above. But I do know what side I’m on if there is.
I pray the people of Ukraine get their “Yorktown” moment.
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