When the reason for liberty appeared most fragile, and its defenders most alone, a person named Thomas Paine picked up his pen and wrote: “These are the occasions that strive males’s souls.”
It was December 1776, one of many bleakest moments within the American Struggle of Independence. Washington’s military was in retreat. Winter was biting. Desertions soared. Hope was fading. Many believed the reason for American independence was already misplaced.
However Paine’s pamphlet, “The Disaster,” helped flip the tide. Gen. Washington ordered it learn aloud to his troopers earlier than a determined assault throughout the ice-choked Delaware River. The assault succeeded. The battle didn’t finish that night time. However one thing much more enduring was rekindled: morale. Resolve. A way that liberty, even on the brink, was nonetheless winnable — and nonetheless value all the pieces.
Paine’s phrases nonetheless ring true — as a result of reality endures. Phrases do matter.
As an American, I imagine deeply in the reason for liberty and within the worth it exacts. Not in slogans. Not in partisan posturing. In precept. In apply. In price. I’ve wrestled with what liberty really calls for. And I can let you know with certainty: Hundreds of thousands of Individuals acknowledge your wrestle not as international, however as acquainted. Liberty just isn’t a matter of geography. It’s a matter of alternative and can.
Ukraine just isn’t a proxy. Ukraine just isn’t a chess piece. Ukraine is a sovereign nation defending itself in opposition to bare aggression. That issues not only for Europe’s stability, however for the worldwide conscience. It issues to all of us who imagine that freedom just isn’t a present granted by empires, however a proper inherent to all individuals.
Sure, some in my nation have grown weary. Others have been misled or distracted. However fatigue just isn’t the identical as apathy, and distraction just isn’t the identical as abandonment. Many people are nonetheless watching. Nonetheless listening. Nonetheless believing. Nonetheless performing. We perceive that Ukraine stands on the entrance line of a bigger, international wrestle: not East versus West, however tyranny versus liberty.
As Paine warned in “The Disaster,” “The summer season soldier and the sunshine patriot will, on this disaster, shrink from the service of their nation; however he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and lady.”
"Pricey Ukrainian mates and patriots, you aren’t simply defending your land. You’re reminding us, the world, what selecting freedom seems like when the selection comes with penalties, not consolation."
As a result of right here is the onerous reality: Freedom just isn’t self-sustaining. It erodes when ignored. It vanishes when taken with no consideration. It should be renewed by every era — by vigilance, sacrifice, and the braveness to confront evil when it seems.
Paine provided a generational problem when he wrote: “If there should be hassle, let it’s in my day, that my little one might have peace.” That’s the reason Ukraine’s resistance issues. The check of freedom just isn’t whether or not it survives prosperity, however whether or not it survives persecution.
Pricey Ukrainian mates and patriots, you aren’t simply defending your land. You’re reminding us, the world, what selecting freedom seems like when the selection comes with penalties, not consolation. This isn’t simply Ukraine’s check alone. It’s ours — everybody, in every single place — now. The world just isn’t merely witnessing a battle. It’s deciding, in actual time, what it would tolerate and what it would turn into. Silence is not impartial. Indifference is not secure. And delay is not benign.
Paine didn’t provide consolation to his readers. He provided conviction. He didn’t promise ease; he insisted on endurance: “Tyranny, like hell, just isn’t simply conquered,” he declared. “But now we have this comfort: that the more durable the battle, the extra superb the triumph.”
I have no idea how or when this battle will finish. However I do know this: Historical past will bear in mind the ethical braveness the Ukrainian individuals have proven — not simply the braveness to struggle, however the braveness to maintain combating when the world’s consideration drifts.
As Paine wrote, “I really like the person that may smile in hassle, that may collect energy from misery and develop courageous by reflection.”
You aren’t solely resisting oppression. You’re bearing witness, for all who select to see, to what true liberty calls for: sacrifice, unity, grit, and an unbreakable will. And for these of us in America who nonetheless imagine liberty just isn’t a posture however an obligation: we see you. We admire you. We stand beside you.
“Although the flame of liberty might typically stop to shine,” Paine reminded us, “the coal can by no means expire.”
And we is not going to overlook you — not in phrase, not in deed, not ever.
Editor’s Be aware: The opinions expressed within the op-ed part are these of the authors and don’t essentially mirror the views of the Kyiv Unbiased.
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The Kyiv IndependentMohammad Eslami