Christmas in the middle of the war. Fight in the middle of Christmas. War and Christmas: two incompatible realities but it coexists these days in as dramatic as it is inexplicable. There will be new widows to mourn their dead husbands in the trenches this Christmas, there will be boys and girls who will be hungry and cold, there will be thousands who will spend their days in the rubble.
On these dates, the world will be filled with messages of good wishes. I wish you happiness, peace, health and prosperity… Seems like a good tradition to me, although it has a high protocol content. As someone accustomed to hearing insults, slander, and aggression, I think it’s okay for a tsunami of congratulations and good wishes to swarm the planet for a few weeks. I don’t know if the bombs and shells from the Russian war in Ukraine will make it possible to hear the formulation of that rain of good words.
It’s hard to think we’re used to living with war. It is already part of our news broadcasts, our meetings, our radio programmes. The war is still there and has no end in sight. Some speak of years of conflict. We have breakfast with war, we sleep with war. One after another, more than three hundred days already.
Almost incredible. When we go to the movies, go to our parents’ house to celebrate Christmas dinner, take a walk, eat at a restaurant, read a book, celebrate mass or play a football game… the war is still on. A war with one sided initiative and breaking all the rules of the game. It is not a conflict between the parties, but a war that is the arbitrary and capricious decision of the powerful tyrant who wants to annex the weakest.
While we are eating, buying, giving gifts, flooding the cities with lights, congratulating each other, a country is being mercilessly and ruthlessly bombarded by a much bigger and more powerful country before the bewildered eyes of the world. Death, cold, and hunger will engulf the entire family as we celebrate the Christmas Eve dinner. While Santa Claus and the Three Wise Men distribute gifts to wealthy children, the other children will succumb to every need and horror unless they succumb to war-sowed death.
It’s hard to imagine these days of opposing experiences of misery and wealth, oppression and freedom, war and peace… While some of us wander the lighted streets between beautiful chords, in Ukrainian cities people run to hide in bomb shelters. While some of us are sitting comfortably in our homes, some of us are freezing to death (temperatures are already minus ten degrees). and died of starvation, crushed by the brutality of the war.
As far as I know, there will be no truce at Christmas. This year’s celebration will be marred by this bloody, unjust and terrible state of war. It is not easy to explain that for more than three hundred days the bombardments, destruction and deaths have not stopped.
President Zelenski left the country for the first time on Christmas Eve for the United States. He was received by President Biden at the White House and addressed the parliament, which filled him with applause. The world cannot remain silent to this atrocity.
War tends to escalate. Everything indicates that the conflict will continue, the destruction will become chronic, the destruction will continue. How much better could education and health get with the money spent on weapons used in war? How much will it cost to rebuild everything the war has wrecked? Couldn’t this money give Ukraine’s girls and boys a better childhood and future?
There are stories about war that pierces the bones of pain. It will suffice for each citizen to describe his experience. I will reproduce two impressive references.
Irina Sushkova, wife of Viktor Sushkov, an officer killed in the conflict, writes tearfully: “I am sitting next to a deceased husband. My life lies next to me in a closed coffin. My life that wiped my tears and said it would never go away. You flew home from work with pockets of chocolate so I wouldn’t be upset. And you always gave everything you took to show me how I cook. You were not afraid of anything, not once. You smiled every day even when everything was wrong. “I’m warm and I eat well.” You made plans to go next year with my family. I thought for a long time what to give you for your first wedding anniversary. And I had to choose a wreath for the grave. In the last conversation, you said you were holding my dream. Now I keep yours for the rest of my life. You are an officer with a code of honor more than these dogs can imagine. I curse these fascists for you, my dear, for our unborn children, for the lives stolen, for you and me. I’m sitting next to a dead husband. I am a 25 year old widow. My life was stolen by Russia».
Ukrainian scientist Artem Liashenko talks about the spring theft and the childhood of children in his country: «Right now we have two choices: fear and hate.. You came wrong at night. You stole old age from our parents and childhood from our children. You stole our spring. He came, but we did not notice him. But we will have many more resources and you will already be drowned in the dark. we’ll hate you to our gray-haired parents who had to spend their time with a fishing rod but were still on the defensive. For children born under a bomb, throwing Molotov cocktails. For every one who died. For every city. For every tree uprooted. For the destroyed maternity ward. But we will fix everything. Our women will give birth to warriors. We will plant bread on your bones. We will bury your imperial greatness in our lands. And we will sprinkle with Ukrainian black soil z rusty. The most devout among us have forgotten humility and are ready to gnaw at our throats. Our understanding of ‘making art in heaven’ is to send you beyond. Our ‘Amen’, your death. You said we are not a nation, we do not exist. But now all Ukrainians anywhere in the world have heard the call of blood.”
How many stories like this cause war? Thousands, millions of scary stories. Why is that? Who can claim the right to do so much damage? In the name of what gods, what countries, what values, what interests can cause so much misfortune?
What world are we building? What kind of world do we present to our sons and daughters? If strong determination is at odds with bombs, how can we convince them that words and negotiations are the best way to achieve peace? If the highest-ranked are killing innocent people on a whim, how can we explain to them that all humans have the greatest respect and dignity simply because they are human?
What kind of schools do we have? How can there be people who can declare war, fight mercilessly and think about it without the slightest grimace? What did we learn in schools, just geography, math and chemistry? What about solidarity, compassion, justice, dignity and freedom?
Celebrating Christmas (What are we actually celebrating when the innocent continue to be bombed?) Think about what the war has done to Ukraine. Let’s think about the causes of this tragedy that destroyed not only a people, but the whole world. Let’s consider the values that govern human behavior. And let’s fight for a different world where war is just a word that has become a hateful and sad antiquity. Despite all the sadness, Merry Christmas.