If I might, I’d like to take the liberty to assume that most everyone reading these monthly updates are the sort of people who consider themselves “life-long learners”, those who never tire of new knowledge or experiences. With that presumption established, I think it’s fair to agree that this new year has been quite the learning experience. Sometimes the lessons have even been certainly a fair bit more intense or brutal than we might have wished.
In these early months of 2022 we have learned the sting of rampant inflation and the bite of high prices at the pump. Unfortunately of course our conservative neighbors have yet to learn that the President has very little control over these factors – which of course they do seem to remember when it’s their guy in office watching the numbers go up. What *we* have learned (or re-learned) about the value of the executive branch is what it is like to have a calm, intellectually curious, reasonable and non-vindictive hand at the helm during times of crisis.
We have also learned quite a lot in just this last week. We’ve learned that there is still a will to fight for freedom and democracy in this world, in the spirit of the Ukrainian people. We’ve learned that the creeping despotism of men like Putin and our own former president can be halted if brave people stand up. We’ve also learned that NATO was not fatally damaged by the sabotage of our former executive, and we’ve learned that President Biden was the right man at the right time to unify our allies to effectively support the resistance in Ukraine. We’ve learned that it is indeed possible to fight the wave of disinformation that makes honest dialogue possible, whether that misinformation flows from the Kremlin or the “Little Kremlin”, Fox News Studio on 6th Avenue.
We have yet to learn whether we can harness that same spirit for Democracy here in coming months as we approach the midterms and other challenges. The warrior spirit can be hard to sustain for very long. The people of Ukraine must for their very survival, whereas we here at home often find ourselves diverted distractions or world weariness. I’m here to say that that’s ok, we all feel it. Though they are not as dire, like the people of Kyiv, we will face our own challenges with a spirit inspired by a love of democracy and liberty, and we will face them together.
Slava Ukrainia
Matthew C. Murray
Chair of the Gloucester Democratic City Committee