Oprah Honors the Courage of the Ukrainian People
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues,” Maya Angelou would often say to me, “because without it no other virtue can be practiced consistently.”
The courage of the Ukrainian people has lit a fire within people all over the world—count me among them. United as one to resist subjugation by Russia through any means necessary, their living, breathing example stands as a profound wake-up call to all of us: We must not take our democracy for granted.
As I write this, rockets batter Ukraine and convoys of Russian troops stand ready to move into its largest cities. We watch as ordinary Ukrainians—women and men of all ages—take up arms, in many cases for the first time ever, to defend against tens of thousands of trained Russian soldiers. We watch as they make unimaginably difficult decisions to stay and fight, or to leave—often without husbands, brothers, and fathers—to save their families from the violence spreading all around them. Those who have fled—well over 600,000 of them so far—are as valiant as those who remain, as they are reaching into the unknown, becoming refugees in order not to submit to Russian domination. They don’t know if they’ll ever be reunited with their loved ones, or when or if they can return.
Images flood in from all parts of Ukraine: a mother comforting her crying twin girls, explaining why they must abandon their home; a young boy crossing the border into Poland with his mother and sister, clutching a teddy bear; grandmothers learning how to concoct Molotov cocktails to use as weapons; the pregnant editor of an independent Ukrainian news outlet—defiant, fierce, even as she makes the painful decision to leave Kyiv with her two children because she and her fellow Ukrainians believe “it’s better to die than to live on our knees. We are willing to die for our freedom.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former actor who until recently was known as Ukraine’s “accidental president,” has left more experienced peers everywhere in awe. A fiery speech he delivered Sunday to European Parliament brought many in the audience—among them his translator—near tears. He has not only risen to the occasion but has united the world around his country’s cause and shown us what true, inspirational leadership looks like.
Heroes are everywhere—from people like Chef Jose Andrés, whose World Central Kitchen moved quickly to serve freezing refugees hot tea and chicken soup at the Ukraine-Poland borders, to business and government leaders who have put aside their financial and political interests to rally around Ukraine and isolate Putin and Russia. And on the ground in Ukraine, volunteers pour in from all over to take up arms alongside their Ukrainian brothers and sisters.
Courage is the most important virtue.
What we’re witnessing in Ukraine and in the world’s response to it is what we can do when we connect, when we allow ourselves to imagine what another might be feeling. We are witnessing something truly powerful, and it may be the light under the fire we need to fight for each other, instead of fighting one another. To remember that our democracy is something we have to work on, and fight for, each and every day. In a recent column in The New York Times, David Brooks wrote: “The founders knew democracy is not natural. It takes a lot of cultivation to make democracy work.”
Already many lives have been lost, and families separated, and doubtless there are dark days to come. But if courage is the most important virtue, and like Maya, I believe it is, then the Ukrainian people are giving us a big lesson in how to act courageously, and now we need to ensure that those lessons endure, every day forward, in everything we do.
If you would like to support the Ukrainian people during this crisis, donate to the following organizations:
The Voices of Children Foundation
International Committee of the Red Cross
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