A bitter day for those who love freedom

The democratic triumph of a man using democracy to undermine democracy

FOUR YEARS AGO SEEMS SO DISTANT WHEN WE are living in turbulent times. Actually, we lose touch with time, and what is 4 years sometimes feels like 40 years, other times feels like 4 months, or 4 weeks.

For someone living in Ukraine, the abstraction of perceiving time these last years goes to an even distinguished level. It was a little more than one year before the nightmare of Russia invading our nation, but we do remember what happened in the United States that day as we watched everything with a lot of apprehension.

We simply could not believe the images that came across the Atlantic that day. My wife told me there was an attempted coup d'état in America, and I didn't believe her. I remember that I only believed when I saw the images of the mob of Trump supporters as they stormed the Capitol in Washington to prevent Joe Biden from assuming office.

In the middle of the first pandemics of most of our lives, that event in Washington D.C. was showing that the following years would be hard to the entire world.

What would be of Ukraine if the coup would be successful? If Donald Trump had assumed in 2021, with all the authoritarian drive of someone who got the presidency through a coup, it would be very likely that these words I'm writing would never be written.

It is a sad reality to assume that Ukraine would much probably not exist now. We exist because the insurrection failed and Joe Biden effectively took office.

You would probably never hear about the bravery of Ukrainians, the courage of our president Zelenskyy, the tenacity of these Armed Forces.

You would never hear about our stories of resilience. About our commitment to defending the nation that our grandparents had always dreamed of but needed to undergo during the most part of the last century the Soviet humiliation that came from Moscow.

Our commitment to build an independent and sovereign nation for our children, anchored in the ideas of democracy and freedom that were denied for not only decades but for centuries by those who ruled from Russia, would be nothing more than a sidenote on history books.

If the coup four years ago would be succeeded, you would never know that "Slava Ukraini," or "Glory to Ukraine," means much more than simply a glory of one nation: it means the glory of everyone who loves democracy on this planet.

But we will never understand how destiny can be so tricky in such unreasonable ways. Today, at this exact time, the same Congress that had violently disrupted its joint session four years ago is legally certifying Donald Trump to another term in office.

The same person, who so much encouraged and instigated an act of terrorism to this same Congress, is now being certified as the next legitimate president.

I'm not even raising questions about his electoral legitimacy. Many people chose him, believed him, supported him. It's hard, but I respect that. But I reserve the right to remain not understanding. And worse, I'm wondering about how the next generations will see what is happening today.

Our sons and grandsons will not forgive our generation for letting it happen. I can even hear my little kid some years from now, asking me why I didn't do everything in my reach to prevent that, or how society was not able to arrest that man and banish him from public life.

I will answer that I was part of a huge effort of millions and millions of people who tried very very hard to elect Kamala Harris or to help her in some way, as most of us in Ukraine. But he will understand that the wheel of history does not turn every time in the direction of virtue. In the direction of the common interest of the free peoples.

And I will tell him that turning in the wrong direction is hard, but it's not a sentence. It is precisely in these moments that we need to rescue the best inside ourselves. The highest standards of courage and resilience that we have in our heart, mind, and soul, so to lift our heads up and fight.

Fight with all the forces we could ever have in every single cell of our body.

Fight with intelligence, with resilience, with the certainty of justice and what we believe is right for civilization.

Today is a sad day for democracy and for everyone who loves democracy. In America and anywhere in the world.

Because, as strange as it is, it’s the democratic triumph of a man who used democracy to undermine democracy.

But no matter where you live, you are alive.

You know what is right and wrong.

Resist the wrong.

You are in good company here in Ukraine.

🇺🇦

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