Letter to Editor: Keep the Ukraine Light On

Recently, as I was sorting through papers I have kept over the years, I came across a letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer that I had written on March 30, 1982; of course, I was much younger then. I had attended a peaceful protest march to Stop the Nuclear Arms Race.  There were two images I particularly carried with me from that experience.  I still do.

(Quoting from that letter) “The first is the image of the middle of the road.  With police and courteous drivers granting us the right of way, we walked literally down the middle of the roads leading from our meeting places to Independence Hall, over 15,000 people joined in a cause neither radical nor reactionary, but reasonable, logical, right and absolutely necessary.”

“The second is the image of the lighted candle.  In the cold night with a chill wind blowing, one has to be alert and active to keep one’s candle burning.  Mine went out several times, but when mine went out the candle of the person next to me seemed to stay lit.  Someone’s candle always re-lit mine, and I had chances to re-light others’ too.”  

 We are all older now, and the issues are surely different, however some seem equally dangerous.  The United States of America must not desert Ukraine and our allies in the free world.  In my opinion, that would be unprincipled, even immoral and extremely ill-advised for the sake of our own nation.  Again, quoting from the letter, “I hope and pray our political, intellectual, scientific, social and religious leaders will put their enormous energies into finding a way that will not embrace the extreme . . . but will find a way for peace with justice.”  I believe that is what the great majority of citizens in our country want, and it is our duty to say so.  

As someone who sometimes finds it hard to keep one candle lit, I think I must try harder.  If this letter has re-lit anyone else’s candle, I am glad.  

Patricia Bradley
Easton