This commentary is by Justin Will of Vershire, Vermont, founder and CEO of Inspired Coffee Merchants, a small coffee trade business that focuses on enabling local economies at both ends of the supply chain. He is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Since returning from Ukraine, I’ve struggled to find the words to describe what I saw. I spent three weeks volunteering with an organization that was providing medical care to internally displaced people.
The situation for me was both better and worse than I’d expected, even as I was hundreds of miles from the front lines. It’s a dreadful mess, to be sure, but often it is through adversity that we find our true selves. Looking back, I reflect on the resiliency of people, the limits of social media, and the importance of leadership.
Nothing prepares you for war. It’s the most extreme of human experiences, yet it never ceases to amaze how many of us can rise to the occasion. The Ukrainians I met possessed a composure and resolve that I only hope we could muster. And if the pandemic was any indication of our mettle, well — I saw Ukrainians brazenly push forward with their lives; in between missile strikes and military checkpoints, they’re carrying on. The cafés are open, the universities are in session. I saw college students gathered in underground bunkers around a guitar, singing and dancing like it was Saturday night.
Resiliency has a soundtrack, and it sounds like laughter and air raid sirens. I remain in awe.
Before leaving for Ukraine, I followed the war extensively on social media. Never has open-source information been so integrated in a conflict. From my lounge chair, I felt as informed as an analyst in the Pentagon. There’s more information out there today than can even be read in 24 hours — and that’s the root of the problem.
Twitter and Telegram can broadcast reports in real time, but they capture only a fraction of the events unfolding. For every Snake Island meme, there’s a family hiding in the walls of their apartment in Kiev. It’s terribly tragic, and all the words and characters in the English language couldn’t capture its gravity.
Instead of watching the conflict unfold on the internet, we should be looking at ourselves, our values, and the leaders we choose to defend them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not the most popular politician in Ukraine, and even today many Ukrainians assume his war efforts are somehow corrupt. On the other hand, the Ukrainian national identity has swelled among the population, so while they might not credit Zelenskyy, the mood is proud and jubilant.
They might not all agree with how the ship is run, but they’re all rowing in the same direction, and no one expected such coordinated effort, least of all Putin. Leadership is never perfect, but it is indispensable.
It’s a brutal war in a complicated world, but it’s also an opportunity for us, the United States and the rest of the democratic world, to remember what we stand for, what we’ll fight for, and what we’ll die for. Let’s have that discussion, and not let a nuclear bully keep us from being the best version of ourselves.
