How beautiful autumn can be! I love this season with its abundance of color. When I fly back from Sweden and the plane descends, I look down at the suburbs of Boston and feel a special joy that my country exists. Perhaps the depth of my pride relates to the fact that my father came here in 1923 as an immigrant. He had to leave Russia as a teenager. His favorite uncle was stoned to death by a revolutionary mob in St. Petersburg. Growing up in the United States, I had no such experience. This type of trauma only figured in history books and novels as something to read about. Now we have a president bent on deporting immigrants and slashing away at our government. Thanks to our television sets, we were all able to witness what happened on Feb. 24, 2022. We saw the tanks heading for Kyiv. We heard the reports of how the invaders raped the women in Bucha and murdered civilians. Now, drones and missiles are killing brave Ukrainians. Anyone with any sense knows that Putin is a war criminal. His soldiers starve, torture, and murder POWs. He’s against democracy. Our longtime allies in Europe fear Putin might send his troops to invade their countries if he is allowed to win in Ukraine, a sovereign nation. And our president admires dictators like Vladimir Putin. Trump is behaving like a dictator himself. With the destruction of the East Wing, I decided to write to Justice Roberts. His court is partially responsible for the president’s belief that he can do whatever he pleases. You should too. Democracy is at stake.
