Lech Wałęsa Writes Trump about the “Horror” of His Attack on Zelenskyy

Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Peace Prize winner, first democratically elected president of Poland and called “hero of Poland’s democracy,” sent a scathing letter to the President of the United States yesterday.  It was signed by 38 other “former political prisoners of the communist regime serving Soviet Russia.”  It was their response to the “horror” they felt watching Trump’s and J.D. Vance’s treatment of Ukraine President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last Friday.  I reprint most of the letter as Wałęsa posted it on Facebook, complete with his preface:

After the US decision to suspend supplies to Ukraine, if the answer was in my gesture it would be “Let’s do our part” not a step back. AMEN.

This is the text we signed:

Your Excellency Mr. President,

We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski with fear and distaste. We consider your expectations to show respect and gratitude for the material help provided by the United States fighting Russia to Ukraine insulting. Gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the frontline for more than 11 years in the name of these values and independence of their Homeland, which was attacked by Putin’s Russia.

We do not understand how the leader of a country that is the symbol of the free world cannot see it.

Our panic was also caused by the fact that the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of one we remember well from Security Service interrogations and from the debate rooms in Communist courts. Prosecutors and judges at the behest of the all-powerful communist political police also explained to us that they hold all the cards and we hold none. They demanded us to stop our business, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffer because of us. They deprived us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to cooperate with the government and our gratitude. We are shocked that Mr. President Volodymyr Zelenski was treated in the same way.

The history of the 20th century shows that every time the United States wanted to keep its distance from democratic values and its European allies, it ended up being a threat to themselves. This was understood by President Woodrow Wilson, who decided to join the United States in World War I in 1917. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this, deciding after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that the war for the defense of America would be fought not only in the Pacific, but also in Europe, in alliance with the countries attacked by the Third Reich.

We remember that without President Ronald Reagan and American financial commitment it would not have been possible to bring the collapse of the Soviet Union empire. President Reagan was aware that millions of enslaved people were suffering in Soviet Russia and the countries it conquered, including thousands of political prisoners who paid for their sacrifice in defense of democratic values with freedom. …He without hesitation called the USSR the “Empire of Evil” and gave it a decisive fight. We won, and the statue of President Ronald Reagan stands today in Warsaw vis à vis of the US embassy.

Mr. President, material aid – military and financial – cannot be equivalent to the blood shed in the name of independence and freedom of Ukraine, Europe, as well as the whole free world. Human life is priceless, its value cannot be measured with money. Gratitude is due to those who make the sacrifice of blood and freedom. It is obvious for us, the people of “Solidarity”, former political prisoners of the communist regime serving Soviet Russia.

[Signed]
“Lech Wałęsa, political prisoner, Solidarity leader, president of the Republic of Poland III,” and 38 other former political prisoners

See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.

And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.

And Fox, “Spiritual Warriors” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104.

And Fox, “Spiritual Warriorhood,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Faith Traditions, pp. 404-422.

Banner Image: The logo of the Polish Solidarity movement. Wikimedia Commons

Queries for Contemplation

How does reading Walesa’s and 38 other Polish heroes of democracy responding to the Oval Office attack on Ukraine President Zelenskyy strike you?  Does it motivate you to stand up for democracy in the United States and beyond and not take it for granted?

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