This is a slightly redacted version of the message I sent to the governments and offices of the nations of the Free World after two weeks of Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was a desperate cry, a cry I wasn't even really hoping anyone would hear. But I'm glad I did do it, even if only to get a degree of clarity for myself on where exactly do I stand on this "issue". Plus I got some replies, and a couple of days later there were the first announcements of major arms packages to Ukraine from several western nations. I like to think I have contributed ever so slightly to the good cause, even if it was just a handful of people that read it.
"Dear fellow human, There is something interesting about values: they don't really exist. You won't find them anywhere in nature. There is no rock you could flip or an atom you could split to discover them there. It is us, the people, who create our values as principles to live our lives by. It is only by our individual commitment and the sheer social contract between all of us that values come into existence. And they cease to exist as soon as we abandon them.
During the three decades of my life, I watched some values be declared as universal and sacred: human rights, respect for life, freedom. And I mostly believed that to be true.
But for the past two weeks, those very values have been systematically pulverized in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And we have collectively went on about our lives as if it's business as usual. We continued enjoying our comfortable, safe lives as thousands of innocent lives in Europe perished in the hellfire of Russian ordnance raining down on Ukrainian cities. We have been literally grumbling on about potential economic sacrifices to the comfort of our own lives as people's bodies have been getting ripped to pieces. After two weeks of the Russian war atrocities, we still continue doing business with this modern equivalent of Nazi Germany, and we still hesitate to use any means in our power to help stop Moscow's aggression.
The annihilation that rains on Ukrainian cities not only destroys Ukrainian lives: it also destroys our sacred values. Worse still - it overwrites those values: human rights are turned into right by might, respect for life turns to contempt and death for all, and freedom turns to slavery. By denying the Ukrainians our full support in fighting for the values we claim are sacred to us, we prove we that we don't deserve these values ourselves. And we make it all that much likely, that we will too become deprived of them.
If there is a way to stop Russia's army of darkness, then we have to do everything in our power to find a way to do it. Because make no mistake: if we won't, the darkness will not stop there. It will continue to swallow everything and everyone in its path until it has engulfed everything and everyone, including ourselves and our children. The darkness will not stop at our doorstep - it will brutally and violently force itself in. So as the member of the community of the values we deem universal and holy, I implore you: do whatever is in your power. Find a way."