I've had to come into my NYC offices this week for executive presentations. Catching a train each morning at 7am, the usual pre-covid commuter grind. Hopefully going back to that in some format. Two days ago, however, it wasn't the usual grind. As I reached the platform and waited for the train, I noticed a young man with one eye in uniform, with his battle gear in bags next to him, and the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder.
I asked him the obvious question, "Are you headed over?" He smiled and said "I have a choice. But my friends and family do not. So, I have no choice. I have to go."
I wished him good luck and a safe return, and he replied "I am Ukrainian, but born in Russia. I had to fight my way out of Russia to get to Kyiv in 2002. I joined my extended family there, got my citizenship, and came to the US in 2008. I am very happy to be here, but I can't ignore what I left behind."
We chatted a bit, and he told me a few stories his friends and family were sharing from the war zone. He followed that up with a brief "I don't trust the news here any more than the news the Russians tell. It's not telling us everything, just one side." Then he showed me his coffee container, which had an "Occupy Mars" sticker on it. He smiled and said "this would be better."
I smiled wistfully, shook his hand and told him to come home safe. He replied "There is no other choice."
This morning, as I rode in, I thought about where he was at that moment. I have no doubt he is in Ukraine. I wonder how close to the front lines he is, and I wondered at how different circumstances lead us to different situations - that luck is a huge part of life. I'm doing executive presentations, and he's hoofing to the front lines. I couldn't fathom the vast differences in our priorities.
Unfortunately, this isn't a war that was inevitable. It was avoidable. I don't believe Putin is a madman, and I don't believe he was right to invade. Sadly, in today's world many people feel these two viewpoints are contradictory and saying it means you're pro-Putin, pro-Russia. I'm not. I'm just realistic. There were paths to avoiding conflict, and we chose to not follow them. This costs young men like my train platform friend dearly.
We may sit here and comment on how the war hurts us because of price and supply chain disruptions. People will remind you that your home isn't being bombed, your family isn't at risk, so consider yourself lucky. I disagree. While our problems are first-world problems, they are important. If we don't worry about them, and we don't deal with them effectively, our first-world problems will become very big problems just like the one he headed off to. His reality can become ours, sometimes when we least expect.
