With modern technology and communication, distant wars are brought right onto the doorstep of Utahns who may have never seen a battlefield. Conflicts in Palestine, Ukraine, and elsewhere dominate the news cycle…until they don’t, and they fade into the background behind politicians and the current phase of the moon. Why, though, should people in Utah care about the historic war in Ukraine?

After all, it’s a far-flung war fought between two foreign countries, for seemingly unknown reasons. Why should the United States, much less Utah, which is almost on the complete other side of the globe, be concerned about this? Why should American money be going to support Ukraine in this conflict? Excellent questions. 

The war in Ukraine started over two years ago when Russia invaded the eastern border of the country, claiming it was “liberating” the people there who actually wanted to be a part of Russia, and that, in actuality, Ukraine shouldn’t even exist, it should all be part of Russia. Ukrainians vehemently disagreed, and still do, waging a war to preserve their homeland. It should be a familiar story to many in Utah. 

Utah has a proud history of service in the Armed Forces. From the time it became a state, Utah has sent her sons and daughters far and wide in the cause of freedom. Over the years, thousands of men and women from the Beehive State have gone abroad to defend those who struggle to defend themselves, pushing back the tides of extremism and fascism. It’s a very American ideal and has been one since the mid-1700s. 

That history should not just be a source of pride, but a teacher as well. As the famous saying goes, “those who do not learn history, are doomed to repeat it.” In the late 1930s, there was another superpower, this time in central Europe, that justified the invasion of its neighbors as a mission of “liberation.” Things played out a little differently, with phrases like “Anschluss” and “Peace for our time” heralding one of the deadliest conflicts in modern history.

Ukraine, in its current state, is acting as the dam holding back the floodwaters. Although Russian leadership claims that the push west will end at Ukraine’s borders, it’s a familiar theme throughout history. Any support given to Ukraine strengthens and patches the cracks in that dam stemming the flood that would inevitably end up on the doorstep of Americans at home and abroad.

Beyond politics, the human family is something to be considered here. Empathy and sympathy are virtues much maligned in the world of social media. Generational sympathy is dismissed when people say, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” cultural sympathy is dismissed with sayings like, “We don’t want their kind here,” and international sympathy is dismissed when immediate results aren’t seen from investment and donation. 

Maya Angelou once penned, “We are more alike, my friends than we are unalike” and although it’s a saying parroted over and over, it’s with good reason. Regardless of religious or scientific belief, it is a fact all humanity shares a common ancestry. Utahns, regardless of how far removed, are in fact members of the same human family. At the very base level, Utahns should care because the War in Ukraine, and all war is always brother pitted against brother, sister against sister, family against family.