Freedom lives on

People cook food outside their homes at a courtyard in the port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 5 during the Russian war. The World Food Program is warning the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine threatens severe food shortages and acute hunger there, and risks triggering a global surge in hunger and malnutrition. (CNS photo/Alexander Ermochenko, Reuters)

4/11/2022 8:42 AM

Ukrainians have inspired many Americans, making their defense a family affair with mothers, grandmothers, sisters, brothers, husbands, fathers and grandfathers doing whatever it takes for their freedom.

This family commitment should not be foreign to Americans whose own nation was founded in defense of liberty. Also, in the last century to the present, Americans fought the horrors of Nazi Germany and other tyrannies. With this, Americans have seen that Ukrainians are not so different from us after all. At different times, each in our own way, Ukrainians and Americans have fought in defense of their freedom. In this commitment, Ukrainians and Americans have much in common. Together, we are peoples with kindred spirits. We are family. For wherever there is a people like the Ukrainian people with hearts beating for freedom, there, the spirit of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, lives on.

John Peter Fazio

Sauvie Island