It is difficult for most Americans to conceptualize what it’s like to experience war on our own soil. We know that wars are terrible, but ultimately they feel like things that happen somewhere else - usually across the ocean. Sometimes, violence from these wars come to us, but usually briefly. We aren’t worried on a day-to-day basis about the threat of invasion from Canada, or the annexation of Maine, and our history of being under the control of another country is distant enough that we write rap-musicals about it now. In Europe, and particularly in Eastern Europe, this is not the case (although I can’t speak to the existence of relevant rap-musicals).
The war in Ukraine is, to say the least, very complicated, and to explain why can be difficult. What is uncomplicated, however, is the show of support that is clearly visible across all of Eastern Europe for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Most if not all government buildings have Ukrainian flags hanging beside their own country's flag. Souvenir stores have blue and yellow shirts on sale - many businesses have little stickers on their windows. You can even find it in the graffiti, and it should all come as no surprise. For these former communist countries, the memory of Soviet control is much more vivid than we might expect, and the threat of Russia’s army even more real than anyone realized.
I went on this trip for many reasons, but one was to learn more about the rapidly growing Ukrainian and Russian population living in Europe. Once you look for them, you can find them everywhere. On a train in France, I met a girl from Ukraine that lives in Paris, whose mother lives in a small town a few hours away. There was a Ukrainian man new to Prague who I helped find the number 9 tram stop. And there are also many of my Russian friends - one who can only visit their family if they all meet in Turkey or Georgia, where Russian people can travel without visas. All who get anxious to tell someone where they are from, even if they had to immigrate because it is not safe for them to live in Russia. It can be incredibly difficult to make the decision to leave the place that’s been home for your entire life.
This might not be an experience that all Americans can relate to, but it might be the experience of your neighbor, or your friend, or your parents or grandparents. The melting pot that they’ve been telling us about in Social Studies classes since the first grade is, I think, one of the defining parts of American culture. Be kind to your new neighbor that doesn’t speak English very well yet. There are a thousand different things that could be the reason they’ve immigrated to the US, and hey. This can be their country, too.
