Letter to the Editor: What Ukraine reminds us about freedom
When the cause of liberty seemed most fragile, and its defenders most alone, a man named Thomas Paine picked up his pen and wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
It was December 1776, one of the bleakest moments in the American War of Independence. Washington’s army was in retreat. Winter was biting. Desertions soared. Hope was fading. Many believed the cause of American independence was already lost.
But Paine’s pamphlet, “The Crisis,” helped turn the tide. Gen. Washington ordered it read aloud to his soldiers before a desperate assault across the ice-choked Delaware River. The attack succeeded. The war did not end that night. But something far more enduring was rekindled: morale. Resolve. A sense that liberty, even on the brink, was still winnable — and still worth everything.
Paine’s words still ring true — because truth endures. Words do matter.
As an American, I believe deeply in the cause of liberty and in the price it exacts. Not in slogans. Not in partisan posturing. In principle. In practice. In cost. I have wrestled with what liberty truly demands. And I can tell you with certainty: Millions of Americans recognize your struggle not as foreign, but as familiar. Liberty is not a matter of geography. It is a matter of choice and will.
Ukraine is not a proxy. Ukraine is not a chess piece. Ukraine is a sovereign nation defending itself against naked aggression. That matters not just for Europe’s stability, but for the global conscience. It matters to all of us who believe that freedom is not a gift granted by empires, but a right inherent to all people.
Yes, some in my country have grown weary. Others have been misled or distracted. But fatigue is not the same as apathy, and distraction is not the same as abandonment. Many of us are still watching. Still listening. Still believing. Still acting. We understand that Ukraine stands at the front line of a larger, global struggle: not East versus West, but tyranny versus liberty.
As Paine warned in “The Crisis,” “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
“Dear Ukrainian friends and patriots, you are not just defending your land. You are reminding us, the world, what choosing freedom looks like when the choice comes with consequences, not comfort.”
Because here is the hard truth: Freedom is not self-sustaining. It erodes when ignored. It vanishes when taken for granted. It must be renewed by each generation — through vigilance, sacrifice, and the courage to confront evil when it appears.
Paine offered a generational challenge when he wrote: “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” That is why Ukraine’s resistance matters. The test of freedom is not whether it survives prosperity, but whether it survives persecution.
Dear Ukrainian friends and patriots, you are not just defending your land. You are reminding us, the world, what choosing freedom looks like when the choice comes with consequences, not comfort. This is not just Ukraine’s test alone. It is ours — everyone, everywhere — now. The world is not merely witnessing a war. It is deciding, in real time, what it will tolerate and what it will become. Silence is no longer neutral. Indifference is no longer safe. And delay is no longer benign.
Paine did not offer comfort to his readers. He offered conviction. He didn’t promise ease; he insisted on endurance: “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,” he declared. “Yet we have this consolation: that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
I do not know how or when this war will end. But I do know this: History will remember the moral courage the Ukrainian people have shown — not just the courage to fight, but the courage to keep fighting when the world’s attention drifts.
As Paine wrote, “I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection.”
You are not only resisting oppression. You are bearing witness, for all who choose to see, to what true liberty demands: sacrifice, unity, grit, and an unbreakable will. And for those of us in America who still believe liberty is not a posture but a duty: we see you. We admire you. We stand beside you.
“Though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine,” Paine reminded us, “the coal can never expire.”
And we will not forget you — not in word, not in deed, not ever.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.
The Kyiv IndependentMohammad Eslami