Lyrically Speaking: Where is the Love?

Over the last few weeks, the world has shifted. Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade and occupy Ukraine feels like a gut punch, especially as many of us were looking forward to a return to some form of normalcy after two years of isolation. 

Now the news is filled with jarring images of Ukrainian cities under barrage and streams of displaced people heading for safety in other European cities. It has been a long time since we have experienced a land war of this magnitude, and it is the first time we are experiencing it streamed in real time on our screens. 

In some ways, we are experiencing these events together as humans; in other ways, we are experiencing them alone — at different times and in different moments. People in Europe face a very different reality than those of us in America; for them, there is a very real (and perhaps valid) fear that this is just the beginning of a broader armed conflict like those endured twice in the last century.

The EU and NATO exist because of those conflicts as previous generations of political and business leaders vowed never to let war happen again on European soil. Indeed, the post-war integration of Europe and the free movement of Europeans has enabled many Ukrainian and Russian citizens to live in other countries, while remaining connected to their families and communities. For Americans, even as we stand in solidarity with our European allies by providing critical leadership and support, it is difficult to imagine what it must feel to like to lose that sense of broader community across Europe.  

And yet, it is personal to all of us. In that spirit, I’d like to offer a framework for how I am coping. In this highly connected world, each of us can make a difference in ways we never could decades ago. And taking personal responsibility to help can also help us feel that we are doing something positive to counteract this aggression.

Speak out. There are multiple ways in which to stand with the Ukrainian people and stand up to Putin’s aggression. We can join with others to amplify our voices and support a peaceful resolution. More than a week ago, I did that by signing a letter with other business leaders, calling for an immediate cessation of the violence and urging others to use their economic influence to protest the Russian regime. More than 750 signatures have been gathered, and I suspect that number will continue to grow over the next few weeks.

Do something charitable. There are plenty of ways to help financially, and no amount is too small. There are also ways to donate goods that can be transported to displaced persons. Here’s a list from the Washington Post of some of the organizations helping the people of Ukraine.

Be careful not to fan the flames of intolerance. Many Russian citizens and former Russian citizens live all over the world. We must remember that they are experiencing these events in their own way, with a unique perspective that we cannot fully appreciate, and we should not judge. It may be that it’s difficult for them to speak out publicly for fear of reprisal, while privately they oppose Putin’s war and support a peaceful resolution. Blaming all Russians, especially the ones no longer living in Russia, for Putin’s actions is misplaced.

Choose morality. While the first three guidelines are things we can do immediately to make a difference today, this is one we can do today, but it takes time to play out. We can choose to align ourselves with moral leadership and against those who do not express a moral and ethical compass. That is the first step in making the world a better place

Several world leaders have expressed shock that Putin decided to pursue military action against Ukraine. I am a little dismayed by that. Putin has a long history of immoral and despotic behaviors, and Western leaders have known that. On multiple occasions, he has authorized the poisoning of dissidents in foreign countries. For years, he has brutally repressed opposition in his own country. And yet, Western political and business leaders have chosen to overlook Putin’s tendencies because doing so was convenient. In the years following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it made sense to build economic ties aimed at bringing the Russian people into the global community. But after Putin assumed and consolidated power, Western political and business leaders could have rethought their decisions. But that did not happen.

Now we must undergo a very painful economic disengagement and do so with the guilt that collective economic engagement with the Putin regime over the past 20 years has enabled him to build enough economic co-dependency to act unilaterally against Ukraine and thereby threaten world order. Many psychological profiles suggest that something happened to Putin during his isolation from Covid. Perhaps that is true, but the fact is he was violent before Covid, and he is violent now. The West was tolerant (or maybe even permissive) of his behavior long before 2022 and now we are all paying the price.

In other countries, some citizens are also a little guilty for having overlooked morality when selecting their political leaders. There may not be immediate negative consequences, but over time, a lack of moral character from a political head of state has a way of playing out in destructive ways. We should all be wary of any political leader who appears to praise Putin for his toughness in this moment. Such praise lacks moral clarity and tells us all we need to know about the person saying it.

Don’t lose hope. My paternal great-grandparents left Ukraine in 1905 to escape the Tsar’s army. The photo you see above was taken in Pittsburgh in 1949, only 45 years after Rebecca and John Tucker bravely left Eastern Europe. They are in the center of this picture surrounded by all seven of their children and most, if not all, of their grandchildren. My father, second from the left in the first row, is one of those grandchildren. He was seven years old, and 17 years after this picture was taken, I was born; then, three years after that, my brother Kyle was born. 

My great-grandparents had a hard life and made hard choices—the kind that millions of people in Ukraine are making now, 117 years later. And yet, pictures like this one remind us that there is life after tragedy. Future generations can and will go on to help make the world a better place. No amount of Putin’s violence can take that away from any of us.

Because that’s Where the Love is.