A new song has just come out; its name is “Can One Man Save the World?,” written by John Ondrasik of the Five for Fighting group and accompanied by the Ukrainian Orchestra. The video for the song uses as a backdrop the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world’s largest airplane that was destroyed by the Russians when they bombed the airfield where it was housed. Past fears of conflict with Russia came rushing back to my mind as I listened to this heroic song written as praise for one of the world’s current, most involved leaders, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
No one knew about this man before Russia attacked the Ukraine on February 24, 2022. His original profession was that of a comedian, who won election to the presidency by promising to eliminate political corruption in the country, to make the Ukraine a democracy, and to pursue membership in NATO. He could be one of the world’s greatest leaders, maybe even a super human, as he leads his war-torn country against the perverse country of Russia. He brings his family’s Holocaust memories and an Eastern European heart of gold to his difficult job. He needs the world’s help to knock down the Iron cross that Russia has placed in his backyard. He has every sane, freedom-loving human being thinking about the price of freedom when fighting against the bear of Communism, when fighting for life itself.
In the years to come, will we call him a savior or a villain of the world? He’s asked the world to help him free his people and keep walking tall for our rights as well as his own country’s. I am a firm believer that if we do not stop the Russian bear now, it will be in our backyard in years to come. His wife, Olena, is holding him close as Putin tries to steal the sovereign eastern territories of the Ukraine. Will her love be enough to sustain his determination to fight to his last breath? Does the world still hunger for human rights for all people or have we become so lost in our own need for materialism that we just don’t care? Do we know right from wrong, light from dark? From across the ocean, can you hear his cries of, “Am I standing alone? Are my people fighting for nothing? Will the world lend its courage and determination to walk beside us so that lesser men will not win?”
Who is this man of steel and resolve who vows to fight to his last breath? As Ukrainian men and women are dying by the hundreds, they are held high in the hearts of their countrymen because the country will live again one day and will prosper way beyond the Russian scourge and beyond our small attempts to aid them. The title, “Can One Man Save the World?,” says it all. Yes, he can and so can the world when we all say, “I am your brother and sister. We are family, and families stick together.” No nation on the face of the earth is an island unto itself; we are one world, created by God and sustained by His divine love and grace. So, Volodymyr, I send you my Eastern European heart; may the One who created us be with you in everything you do!
Anna Hartt
