Another Side of Today’s Situation
by Paula Johnson
Last May our new editor of The Marcellus News gave us her vision of the newspaper’s future. First and foremost, the paper would focus on Marcellus. Then as time, space and opportunity presented itself, its scope would broaden to further horizons.
She has done a herculean job over less than a year, and kept every promise she gave. Today, I would like to venture into the further horizons.
As many of you may know, I have an international friend, Suzanne Wennberg. Suzanne and I have been friends for 50 years, before she even was a Wennberg. It is through Suzanne’s friendship and generosity that Curt and I have had a Florida home these past two winters.
Suzanne and Gunnar live in Lidingo, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. They are and have always been Swedish citizens. Thus, with the pandemic they were unable to travel outside the country last winter. Gunnar’s advanced age and health kept them away this year.
We do keep in communication, and it is our recent communications that I would like to share as part of another view of the current situation in Ukraine.
As a bit of background on Sweden, the country has been at peace for over 200 years with “an official policy of neutrality in foreign affairs.” Sweden is a member of the UN and other world organizations, but not until 2009 did it begin cooperation and movement with NATO.
In an internet/phone conversation last week, Suzanne told me how drastic conditions have become in Sweden. At that time all regular broadcasting had ceased, only news programming and information from the government on what to have and how to prepare for an invasion were on the air waves. After Sweden sent support to Ukraine, Putin threatened Sweden which has prompted this fear and preparedness.
Their daughter, Alexandra, and granddaughter from Stockholm have now moved in with Suzanne and Gunnar. Alexandra told her mother to reconsider selling her place in Dunedin, Florida because they might need a place to go to for safety.
In her latest emails, Suzanne writes,
• …you know my/our minds right now are so much on the terrible news that our Prime minister said one hour ago in her speech to the Nation: “The Threat towards Sweden is worse today than a week ago”. Can you imagine? I am terrified! I do not know what we can do?… (If we are not invaded by the – nothing is impossible I am afraid)
• I do understand that your news does not include a small country like Sweden. So far away. But we are almost (not so far, compared to what happens in Ukraine) as the poor, poor people in Ukraine the middle of this nightmare. All this suffering!! There are no words for it. It has gone so far that my friends and I talk about maybe we won’t be here this coming summer. Here things happen very fast. I feel sick of worries…my daughter and my granddaughter… I am old, I have lived my life and may it just go fast. My English friends, I talked to them today and I almost died when they said: we hope we will talk to you again, ever…. But that is how Europe looks at Sweden´s situation.
With this from Suzanne, I then emailed my cousins in Sögel, Germany. Sögel is in NW Germany about 3 hour’s drive from Amsterdam. Only Irmgard has responded. Irmgard is also the mayor of Sögel. She writes:
• dear Paula. we are all doing well. the first refugees are just arriving in our village of Sögel. we collected clothes and money. we are afraid of Putin and his sole power over nuclear weapons, also because he has occupied nuclear power plants. Thank you for your prayer. we also pray for the poor people in Ukraine but also for the Russian soldiers. I don’t think they knew where they were being led. they are so young. many children suffer. the families have to leave the men in Ukraine. the heart is sad. best regards, Irmgard
Sometimes as situations progress and we hear or read news, we forget the people who are involved on the fringes. The people who live lives as we do on a daily basis.
As our generations grow further and further away from those who left the “old country” to make a new and, hopefully, better life – we might lose sight of why we are here.
If you have family who can remember the times or who remember the stories they were told of war rationing, etc. – listen and share. If you are a third or fourth generation of immigrants, try to find stories of how your early family members left their family abroad and sacrificed to come to the United States and how they struggled to find a home and job and equal place in their new country.
As a history teacher, I know how history books can too often give a glossier picture of the past. Television can bring happenings into our living rooms, but it doesn’t bring reality. I can remember when Vietnam was in our living rooms, but so was M*A*S*H.
The Vietnam we saw on the screen was not the same Vietnam my brother experienced firsthand. Brutal? Yes. Fearful? Yes. But not as real as being there – for either the soldiers or the citizens. People really lose.
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