Ukraine war

This Ukrainian flag hangs along my walking route here on Martha's Vineyard Island. There are more visible signs of support for the Ukrainian struggle against Russian aggression here than in San Francisco. A few moments of reflection suggest why that might be.

This island is very dependent on seasonal labor to service the July and August tourist population explosion. There are roughly 20,000 people here now; there will be over 100,000 in the summer. The work in the tourist economy is hard and long; the living conditions for seasonal workers are tough -- there's barely enough housing for year round residents, so rentals are expensive and crowded.

Seasonal workers used to come from the Cape Verdi islands, but "the Brazilians" -- Portuguese speakers -- have become part of the established fabric of this island. Nowadays, short term labor comes from eastern Europe -- probably often from such countries as Poland, Moldova -- and Ukraine. 

So the Ukraine war feels a little closer here than in California.

I was moved by something Tom Nichols, a U.S. Russia expert, wrote about that war (as excerpted by Brad DeLong):

Tom Nichols: The war in Ukraine is the end of a world: Personal grief about the passing of the hopes so many of us had for a better world at the end of the 20th century…. I was wrong. I underestimated the power of Soviet imperial nostalgia. And so today, I grieve. I grieve for the innocent people of Ukraine, for the dead and for the survivors, for the mutilated men and women, for the orphans and the kidnapped children.  I grieve for the elderly who have had to live through the brutality of the Nazis and the Soviets and, now, the Russians. I grieve for a nation whose history will be forever changed by Putin’s crimes against humanity. And yes, I grieve, too, for the Russians…. Finally, I grieve for the end of a world I knew for most of my adult life… [a] world… full of chaos, but… also grounded in hope…. After 1991, time seemed to be on the side of peace and democracy, if only we could summon the will and find the leadership…. Now I live in a new era…. Democracy is under attack everywhere...

I'm still willing to stand up for democracy. We have no choice but to stay true to our own better heritage, however mutilated that may be. But yes, war is evil.