The other day I spoke with a young Ukrainian boy about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to a joint congressional session.

Yes, he listened to President Zelensky but said, “It wasn’t a very good translation” – he meant the Ukrainian translation of Zelensky speaking in carefully pronounced English. While Ukrainian is the boy’s native language, he is now fluent in English, having arrived here to flee the Russian invasion with his small family, leaving his now conscripted father there. The translator, the boy suggested, might be Russian and only learned Ukrainian later.

Speaking English is one of many adaptations this boy is making, having left behind his teachers, friends, sports teams, everything that makes up a young child’s life in order to make a new one. The steadfast courage Zelensky spoke of among Ukrainians is mustered by a young child, too: doing math homework, studying his spelling, missing his father. Zelensky said, “We have to do whatever it takes.”

The perceptive boy, in noting the incompetence of the translation, brought to mind Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz and their refusal to stand with every other Congress member to honor some of Zelensky’s powerful words.

Inviting Zelensky to speak is how a democratic government shows its mettle. Before an international audience, a poor interpretation of democracy by those members of Congress led to just more petty partisan grandstanding.

Susan Cook
Bath

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