How will it end?

As we have watched from the sidelines for three years now the situation in Ukraine has gripped the hearts of Americans in a surprisingly intimate way.

It’s like a story that sounds vaguely familiar to each of us, but we can’t really remember why … we can’t quite put our finger on it.

It’s a story that begins something like this: “When in the Course of human Events it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.”

Of course!!!! Now we remember. That is how OUR story begins.

But our story continues… “We hold these Truths to be self-evident that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…”

Whoa!! We are watching ourselves!! This is our story in some ways…

Ukraine wants to be an independent nation, separate from the old, tyrannical, mother country!

Just like us!!!! Way back when…

Now, we start to remember OUR exciting story’s beginning and we are riveted with theirs as we watch, and wait, and wonder, “How will the Ukraine story eventually read?”

Which whispers to our own nervous souls, parallel to it, “How, as Americans, will OUR story eventually read?”

And we hold our breath and pray for happy endings.

STEFANIE HUFFAKER,

Alpena