This past Thursday evening Vicki and I dined at a friends’ house on wonderful Persian food. The food was excellent, but what I learned from those sitting around the table was a rich diet of insight regarding Ukraine and Russia. It is helpful to have a clearer view of what is really going on in the world as we exist in the chaos of the Trump Administration and the various acts of whiplash as he changes his mind about important aspects of living in our nation. He reverses himself on too many issues filling the nation with insecurity phrased as “what will he do next.”
I was seated between Trudy Rubin, the Inquirer’s expert on global affairs, and my wife. In addition to our friends there was a Scholar on China who had just given a lecture at Harvard Law School who stood up against Xi Jinping, President of China, in his teaching including western ideology. There were also present a woman who began a school in China based on “getting the questions right” which was not sanctioned by the Chinese leader, and the Head of the Global Studies Program at Penn.
I always take a moment to indicate to Trudy that she is a hero of mine. She looks like the proverbial little old lady in tennis shoes, but she is filled with courage and is a pit bull for justice and love. She leaves behind her bullet proof gear that she wears while in Ukraine as it is too hard to carry around as she travels.
How could I summarize revelations from such a gathering? Trudy had talked to Zelensky the morning before that ill-fated meeting with Trump and Vance that went off the rails. He carried a heavy weight into the meeting as he just had to fire one of his friends from his position in the military. He was feeling vulnerable.
He just couldn’t bring himself to kiss the ring of Trump and his lapdog, Vance. Recall Zelensky had been called a dictator who started the war by Trump. Trump thought he could work a transaction for Ukraine to pay America back for defending the free world by taking Ukraine’s minerals, their only asset to rebuild. If you haven’t seen it yet online, read the Former President of Poland, Lech Walesa’s, letter to Trump.
Now, I know from the Chinese Law Expert and Head of Global Studies at Penn that Putin will never have a significant relationship with China’s head as Russia has nothing to offer. They are without a solid economy and the people needed to fight a war. What is occurring now is Putin has bombs but puts waves of North Koreans in the front line. Then later in the battle he puts in the few Russian troops that he has. But right now, Zelensky doesn’t have the resources to fight against that strategy.
We have traveled to Russia with friends, one of whom was a professor of Russian History, who is fluent in Russian. The poverty of Russia is obvious at one level because as you travel about it is like being on a Hollywood movie set with glitz up front and nothing behind. Our guide had to get up at 6 in the morning to stand in line to get milk for her children. The gray buildings are contrasted by bright colors on the up-to-date fashions that people wear on the streets as it is now permitted. It is a juxta positioning of extremes.
At our various meetings of people who are making news, our hostess always asks me to bless the food and the evening ahead that is the food of information and insights. One of my exchanges with an individual elicited a response that she “was not very religious.” I have heard that often from students that I taught. It implied that I had something that they didn’t have. It is a blessing to head the spiritual life of a religiously diverse school. It wasn’t the right context that evening to comment on the many times in a school where I taught to hear those words from members of the school community
Here is what I should have said in that moment that I have repeated often to others. How do you know that you are not religious? The response usually was, “My family isn’t. I don’t go to church, synagogue, or a mosque.”
I am reminded of JD. Salinger’s book about the precocious children in the Glass family. Zooey comes home from college after finding religion. She criticizes family members saying they are not religious enough for her. Franny responds to Zooey after a bowl of chicken soup is offered saying, “you have missed every religious action that has been made this morning as others tried to care for you.”
Let’s go back to Trudy Rubin, one of my heroes, and fortunately I have had opportunities to tell her so. Religion is derived from the Latin ligio which means to connect as in ligament and refers to the sacred connections to self, others, and God. A hero implies that someone has courage. When my friend goes to Ukraine to report back the justice and love issues of the Ukrainians for others and their country, she puts on that bullet proof vest to make sure that we at home know the truth, not from a textbook but from someone walking on that ground. It is a heavy vest which is why she leaves it there for the next trip. She is courageous and religious, valuing the connection to herself, to others, and to the sacredness of the people of Ukraine. The heart of religion is ethics which is defined by the two pillars that hold it up, justice and love. Rubin’s trips normally include attendance at a burial service for a child or other person destroyed by Putin at a service of the Orthodox Church.
She is a hero.
Let’s also go back to that ill-fated ambush of a meeting in the oval office among Zelensky, Trump, and Vance. Which person was a hero and which two were not?
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