A few weeks ago two young women, one from Ukraine and one from Poland, were guests in Athens while they participated in a U.S. Congressional program learning about immigration. They since have returned to Poland, and we heard from one of them (Monica) a short while ago. She is near the Ukraine border helping to coordinate the delivery of medicine into the war-torn country. She told us that winter had arrived, and that the Russians were destroying the power generating stations in Ukraine. As a result, many of the civilians there will be without heat during some very cold months. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians already have fled to Poland, and Monica says they are preparing for even more as living conditions become harder to endure in their neighboring country. The refugees are straining Poland’s resources and infrastructure. Monica’s final sentence, though, speaks loudly about the character and resolve of the Polish people. “We can handle this,” she said.

Monica reached out one more time before publication of this letter. She told the story of a refugee from Ukraine named Mr. Wiktor.

“He suffered from cancer and fled to Poland … He died alone in a foreign country. His last wish was that he be buried in Poland.

“It’s all so sad and scary … The world needs to know what war leads to,” she said.

There are people here who are questioning whether we should continue to make much smaller sacrifices to help the Ukrainian people. I only hope that we, too, have the character and resolve to say “We can handle this.”