The Thing About Democracy
Holding on to freedom for dear life.
Because of my maiden name, people assume I am of German descent. While my lineage does trace back to Dutch and German ancestry (if you go back far enough into the 1700's) this cultural designation is a misnomer.
Most people don’t know I once lived in Ukraine.
A Miniature History Lesson
Well, not me exactly but my DNA donors did. Over ten generations ago, my ancestors were looking for a way out of what was then known as The Kingdom of West Prussia. Without going into a huge history lesson, they were getting out of Dodge essentially due to religious persecution, which included their refusal to take up arms.
In 1763, Catherine II sent out an invitation to Europeans to settle land in various pieces of what was then “New Russia”, particularly in the Southern, Volga, region. The Mennonites struck up a deal with her, and she agreed to their conditions of how they would be allowed to live and worship, and started pouring into the Chortitza region. They set up small closed communal villages to live, in many ways, separate and apart like their offshoots the Amish still do. They were raising livestock, growing sunflowers, grain and more in what is currently Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
At first, this was an amazing arrangement for both parties. Many families high-tailed it out of Prussia and filled up Chortitza, forming the Molotschna and other colonies in no time.
The Mennonites flourished in Ukraine for a few generations, but eventually so did Nationalism and the Russian government revoked the special status Catherine II had originally promised them. The writing was on the wall and the Mennos had enough. They were breaking up with Russians and started courting other countries to form a new relationship where they could practise their way of life.
Then and Now
With Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, I starting brushing up on my geography. I realized something that made my heart drop…
In comparing the map above — which indicates the Mennonite colony regions — to the current maps illustrating Russian invasion advancements, it was clear. My stomach turned when I realized that Mariupol is right there — exactly where my ancestors set up their colonies. It’s those six degrees of separation that makes in even more real than it already is. My blood was once on the very same soil of opportunity and freedom.
Over my lifetime, I have often pondered what it must have been like for my ancestors to make that leap of faith. To leave a land they had just settled for the last hundred years or so and then make a very difficult journey to the “new world” in the late 1800’s. And still they trusted that this new government wouldn’t change their settlement agreement.
While the late 1800’s Mennonite exodus from what is now Ukraine was under duress, please understand I do not claim to draw any parallels to the desperate escape from their homeland the Ukrainians are experiencing right now.
It simply makes me feel even more deeply about the horrendous crisis they are undergoing.
I listen to CBC News: World Report every morning like my own loved ones are stuck in Mariupol. Even more personally I can’t help but think…
What if this were me and my husband?
What if… political events turned out differently and my relatives never moved from their colonies and eventually assimilated with the Ukrainian community? What if these people were my family desperately trying to find a safe path out of Ukraine to some temporary shelter, hoping that The-Unhinged-One would stop his devastating violent nonsense.
What if?…
What’s Next?
Sure it’s easy to sigh in my comfy chair in my cozy house, shake my head, and think “oh dear, well good thing I lucked out being born in democratic Canada.” Right time, right place… right? But here’s the thing.
Just over a year ago to the south of me, the American capital was stormed by a group of dangerous misguided fellow countrymen. Earlier this year in my very own dear country, misinformed individuals created a trucker blockade at the capital, fighting what they perceived as a “tyrannical government”.
Tyranny. Really? We should know better and I am mortified that any of my countrymen contributed to those efforts.
The reality is, both of these incidents had been brewing for a while before they crescendo-ed and it sure doesn’t feel over. There is a swelling in the me-centric exclusionary ranks of “otherness”. Not only in North America, but these groups are seeking each other out worldwide, announcing philosophies scarily similar to a previous hater with a nose patch moustache (and you know I’m not talking about Charlie Chaplin). The amount of hate-filled individuals just bursting to show the world how angry they are is truly shocking and disheartening.
We’ve come so far as a global community in so many ways, yet the pendulum is swinging from enlightenment back toward dark times.
How to Reclaim Democracy?
I can’t help but think if a world leader decided to attack Canada, would I personally be willing to physically defend this land? My family? Myself? I no longer belong to the religious community my fore bearers were a part of for five centuries, but my belief in Pacifism runs through my veins like the Dneiper River cut through the Chortitza Colony.
It’s just a thought exercise and I hope it stays that way, but would I be willing to fight for the democratic freedom of a country I have taken for granted my entire life? Would you?
In supporting Ukraine we are defending ourselves too. So what are WE willing to do? As global citizens, what is our moral and ethical responsibility to protect our Ukrainian family and end this senseless war?
Glory to Ukraine.
They deserve all the glory for their defiance of true tyranny and their continuing strength and courage in the face of it all.
Now… what is our next move?
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”
― Albert Einstein
If you’d like to read more of my essays on related topics, follow these links:
