Overlooking a pond next to a hiking trail in the woods of Bristol, there is a tall pole wrapped in yellow and blue ribbons — the colors of Ukraine.
I first encountered the pole about a year ago, two months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At the time I thought the pole was a heartening sign of solidarity that, even as far away from the war as Addison County, Vermont, democracy mattered and Vermonters understood that Russia’s war was a crime against humanity.
In one sense, a single maypole-like gesture hidden away in the woods of Vermont does not weigh heavily in the global struggle against autocracy. In another sense, small gestures and heartfelt beliefs multiplied by millions can be a powerful force.
Even so, the war has continued at a scale of devastation that Europe hasn’t witnessed since World II. Onlookers around the world have made their symbolic gestures, and though the pole in the woods still stands, the colors on the Ukrainian flags displayed around the state have begun to fade.
Wrapping those ribbons around the pole in Bristol required some ingenuity. The pole had been there long before someone thought to use it for a pro-Ukraine message. There is a wheel atop the pole, and someone must have figured out how to loop the ribbons up through the wheel and down around the pole.
The Ukraine pole rises above a trail that leads nearly 3 miles through the woods to the top of a mountain with a sweeping view of the farmland of Addison County. On Nov. 7, 2020, we went to that mountaintop in an exultant frame of mind because that morning the presidential election had been called for Joe Biden. It was a kind of celebration and an emotional release because of the catastrophe averted.
Now we see how important it was that the pro-Russian former president went down to defeat.
Biden is a professional politician with long experience, and he understood immediately what was at stake in Ukraine. It is a new era during which we have been forced to draw on lessons learned from World War II. Sometimes the preservation of democracy demands a willingness to stand up to aggression. We have moved beyond the era when the idea of accommodating Russia, in the wake of the Cold War, made sense.
But it isn’t easy for Biden, and he might draw inspiration from a new biography of Abraham Lincoln by Jon Meacham. Meacham describes the treacherous road Lincoln had to travel to keep the Union together during the Civil War.
Lincoln faced a practical and a moral test. His principal motive was to keep the Union together, but he also understood the moral wrong of slavery and how preservation of slavery was the motivating force behind those who would destroy the Union.
There were strong forces in the North who wanted Lincoln to negotiate a peace deal with the Confederacy, essentially surrendering democracy in favor of the slave-owning aristocracy of the South. Military defeats that continued well into 1862 increased pressure on Lincoln to negotiate peace, and he had to placate those who thought ending slavery was not worth the price while also placating the anti-slavery forces that had brought him to power.
The defense of democracy in Ukraine requires a similar balancing act. Biden must continue to lead the way, showing that the price of surrendering Ukraine’s democracy to the demands of autocratic Russia would endanger democracy throughout Europe.
Luckily, opposition to U.S. support of Ukraine has been muted. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida proclaimed a few weeks ago that the Ukraine war was not important to the United States, but he quickly retreated when he found virtually no one agreed with him.
So the war continues. At the same time, we know that if Russia were allowed to succeed, would-be autocrats around the world would take heart. China must have noticed that conquering a strong neighbor with powerful friends is not so easily done.
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation only after Union success at the battle of Antietam. He didn’t want it to seem that emancipation was a desperate action by the losing side. Freedom required power and a recognition that power in the service of democracy was the only way to sustain freedom.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, seems to understand what Lincoln understood and what Biden understands. He is presiding over a war costing the lives of tens of thousands of his countrymen. And yet the moral stakes require all the practical skill and moral strength of the political and military leaders of Ukraine and its allies
Someone has erected a stone sculpture out of found stones across the trail from the maypole of freedom in Bristol. Stones are piled in a formation about 3 feet high with an aperture that looks out on the nearby pond, as if one were looking at a vision of peace.
These are tokens of faith and hope hidden away in the woods of Vermont. As the war in Ukraine continues, it’s nice to know they are there.
