By Linda Stamato
We gather on Memorial Day every year to honor the Americans who fought and died for their country; and for the freedom and independence they secured for us.
It’s a time to remember what was given by the soldiers of the Union, over four bloody years that took nearly 700,000 lives.
The union they saved is what we have now, the United States of America.
America’s Civil War offers a powerful parallel to Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression.
WHY WE REMEMBER
What is the memory that’s valued so highly
That we keep it alive in that flame?
What’s the commitment to those who have died
When we cry out they’ve not died in vain
—Light One Candle, Peter, Paul and Mary
Memorial Day, originally Decoration Day, was established after the Civil War. As Drew Gilpin Faust reminds us in her New York Times essay, They Died for the Promise of America, it was Frederick Douglass, four years after the war’s end, who worried that the 400,000 Northern soldiers who died in the war, “and even the meaning of the war itself,” might be forgotten.
They needed to be remembered not only for their bravery, but also for what they died for. It mattered what the nation chose to remember. Douglass held that “they died…for a nation that embodied the hope of freedom and self-government throughout the world.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky understands.
“On the frontline of tyranny,” he told Congress in 2022, “American support is crucial not just to stand in such a fight but to get to the turning point to win….
“The world is too interconnected and too interdependent to allow someone to stay aside and at the same time to feel safe when such a battle continues. Our two nations are allies in this battle and next year will be a turning point–- the point where Ukrainian courage and American resolve must guarantee the future of our common freedom, the freedom of people who stand for their values,” Zelensky said.
Ukrainians have lost a fifth of their country to the Russians, and for now the prospects for getting any of it back are grim. Yet the country is very much alive. It yearns to be whole again.
The states that seceded from the union encompassed 750,000 square miles, a territory was twice as large as the original 13 colonies. Lincoln wasn’t alone in believing the nation could not move forward without those states, and those who fought for the union demonstrated how profoundly that belief was shared.
JUST WARS
In Ukraine’s resistance, I see a commitment similar to what President Lincoln described in 1863: A nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
In America, one side fought to save the Union and bring about a “new birth of freedom,” (Lincoln’s words); in Ukraine, the people resist an invasion by an adversary bent on smothering their liberty.
Ukrainian soldiers are motivated by a strong desire to defend their homeland; they fight for their culture, their way of life, their very identity. The will to fight remains strong.
As the American Foreign Policy Council reports, “Polls consistently find that nearly 70% of Ukrainians oppose ceding land for peace. Why? Because giving up land means surrendering to life under Russian occupation. Ukrainians know from history what that means; to prevent it, they are willing to endure the deaths of thousands more of their soldiers and the destruction of many of their cities and towns.”
Anne Appelbaum concludes that Ukrainians are digging in for the long haul because they know the war will end only when the Russians stop fighting.
The invasion of Ukraine is approaching its third anniversary with no end in sight. The conventional wisdom argues that after nearly three years of killing, the war must stop — something possible only through the surrender of Ukrainian land occupied by Russian forces.
As Faust reminds us, “between 1861 and 1865, some 2.7 million men, almost all volunteers, took up arms to preserve the Union as a beacon of democracy at a time when representative government seemed to be fading from the earth.”
Our forbears could not tolerate a divided nation, half bound, half free. The Ukrainians want to hold on to their ground, intact, guaranteeing freedom for all.
The end could come faster with American help. But if there isn’t any, the Ukrainians will keep going. They don’t have any choice.
WHAT IS AT STAKE
We mark Memorial Day to honor the dead — and to remind us every year why we do it.
As Ukraine fights for its life, and for values our countries share, a struggle over those values is intensifying here.
Our democracy is threatened, once again, from forces within that seek to displace our “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” This time the fight is against an abominable, authoritarian force that holds no respect for the nation’s institutions, its constitutional checks and balances, its representative government, or its history.
Yet Lincoln believed that the America he cherished “should not perish from the earth.”
We have been entrusted with this legacy. And that obligation has expanded. Freedom requires new defenses, in America and in Ukraine.
As we honor those who died in the Civil War to ensure our future, we must stand with those who give their lives every day in Ukraine to secure their freedom.
Ukraine, too, should not perish from this earth.
WATCH LINDA STAMATO ON NJ PBS ‘STATE OF AFFAIRS’
Linda Stamato is a member of the nonprofit Corporation for New Jersey Local Media. At Rutgers, where she is a Faculty Fellow, she is co-director of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. She also is a trustee of the Morristown and Morris Township Library Foundation, and a former commissioner on the Morristown Parking Authority.
Opinions expressed in commentaries are the authors’. They do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
Civilized . Yes.
Guys Chris is right. We are like wild animals. Roar! Roar!
Well, some of us are civilized human beings capable of discussing topics in a serious way. Not like animals.
Wax Poetic: what was the root cause of our civil war? What have we learned about that root cause? In other countries, why doesn’t it exist? When are we going to look at things from a different perspective and grow, rather than co time to force what doesn’t work. Look to the wild animals- they all tell a natural story.
Hi Ken- How was the USA established-a request over tea and biscuits?
How was the history of the world shaped? Trading stickers and snacks?
Why are we a nuclear society? Is it bc we plan on negotiating over a cookie exchange?
Drew Gilpin Faust’s The Republic of Suffering details in shattering detail the human costs of the Civil War. It could be extrapolated to all wars, and those who START wars, as Putin did in Ukraine, absolutely must be resisted. Trump’s vaccillation on this is a disgrace (one of his own favorite words).
We understand your talking points, we disagree entirely with your perspective and what social media posts align with those views as well.
We have two parties for a reason, and it seems we are getting further and further from being able to arrive at a centrist position.
Fortunately, many in NJ have had enough and are hopeful we finally go Red.
We need more policy that aligns with a conservative and pro America approach.
As for NATO, Ukraine cannot join or we get world war 3 .
As for the Orange Man. We appreciate his fiscal and America First policy as well as the billions in investment coming into the country.
I am so sorry that the hatred personally the blue beans feel for Trump overshadows the obvious strength and fortitude his administration is bringing through America first policy.
We want pro Americans in office across the board. Not angry politicians prioritizing other nations.
Thank you for sharing your article and perspective. Dialogue is wonderful.
Chris, you don’t seem to understand that “the leftists,” as you label Democrats and Independents, are not in a position to give anything away; it’s the GOP holding the power and they are on the cusp of delivering huge financial gains, by continuing and expanding the Trump tax cuts, to the very wealthy while cutting programs that provide benefits to those who are far from wealthy, say, the Affordable Care Act, that all polls say Americans cherish, Medicaid, which some need desperately, including children and the disabled, and, frankly, for reducing the work opportunities that would be created under the Infrastructure Act, most occurring, or would occur, in “red states.”
Your knowledge of what is happening seems to be in your own head, and perhaps in social media posts that align with your thinking. Try visiting a site that provides facts and figures; you can avoid opinion and analysis if you want.
The Cuban missile crisis ended well but we had a president who understood what negotiations between adversaries can produce and so we avoided a major confrontation, allowed Russia to ‘save face’ and refused to gloat over our prevailing in the stand-off over the warheads that were destined for Cuba. I have no idea what you think that crisis was about.
NATO violated what? Russia, on the other hand, invaded Ukraine, no question about that. And it is destroying what it seeks to control.
As for missiles on our doorstep, and its equivalents, we can negotiate to reduce the threat to ourselves and our adversaries if we share interests, like trade, that connect us. Severing ties and imposing high costs on trading partners, with tariffs, are hurting our own industries as well as China’s, not to mention our allies, Japan, Vietnam, Europe, Canada, Mexico……Doing this is neither in our interest or in China’s.
The Division between Red and Blue perspective is so extreme it doesn’t appear it can be reconciled, sadly.
There’s no point to recite and outline the reasons as they won’t connect.
New Jersey must flip back to Red, Republican and save our state, roots and future before it looks like an overthrown dumpster.
What revisionist history this is. What side in the Civil War did the invading? Almost the entire war was fought in the south by the north. Not much different than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was the north that tricked newly arrived Irish immigrants into joining their army to fight as mercenaries in a war in which they had no interest. Sounds like North Koreans. The south was fighting to maintain and preserve the originally agreed deal made in the constitution. The northern abolitionists wanted to force change by force since they could not win by the vote. In the Gettysburg Address quoted above, the war had already been raging for two years. This was not the original reason for the war, only rationalization. Remember that in his letter to Horace Greeley Lincoln said “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it…”
I don’t understand how you can say Ukraine is a very corrupt county as its people are fighting for their independence from Russia…a communist dictatorship. Perhaps you are not aware of all the good that the Biden administration did for the country after four years of Trump. And once again the Trump adiministration is willing to destroy our democracy.
Let’s focus on the NATO agreement and its violations that have triggered a just response from Russia.
Let’s again understand the Cuban missile crisis.
Leta again understand that agreements must be honored and followed. We don’t want missiles on our doorstep, neither does Russia or China.
The Ukraine is a very corrupt country and a bargaining chip. The Left can’t help themselves with the one sided appeasement.
We won’t have a country left in 50 years under leftists rule. They are giving it all away and forgetting what created this nation! Sad!