Dr. Lockwood’s take on The Situation in Ukraine

Dear Faculty, Staff, Residents and Students:

I am sure you are all saddened by the events unfolding in Ukraine. It is unimaginable that in 2022 we are seeing such wanton cruelty and atavistic behavior. History, it would appear, repeats itself yet again, allowing us to glance again at the barbarous side of humanity. The chronological record of sapiens is littered with the tragic machinations of tyrants, autocrats and bullies seeking to exploit the perceived vulnerability of neighbors for political, financial, and geographical gain. Thus, our hearts go out to the Ukrainian people who must now resist an unprovoked invasion by Russian forces led by a sinister autocrat surrounded by thuggish cronies.

The Spanish poet and philosopher Santayana said, “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And because we failed to heed the lessons of the 1930’s we now are reliving through the anguish of Ukrainians what was felt by the Czechs, Poles and all those parts of Europe invaded by Hitler and his murderous Nazi thugs, and by the Chinese, Koreans and other South Asians subject to the horrors of invading militarism during World War II.

We were also woefully unprepared for those struggles. Americans then as now were attempting to regain their footing in the wake of an economic calamity; Americans then as now were wrestling with ideas of both democracy and authoritarianism; free market capitalism and socialism; appeasement and re-armament; isolationism and engagement. Then as now, foreign dictators sought to exploit what they misperceived as intrinsic weakness of democracies, but what was in fact the rigorous debate of an open society and a free people. Pre-WWII, the miscalculations of these dictators are what unified America and its allies and awoke in us a dormant martial vigor which rose to crush them.

Our current internal challenges in America, which just a few weeks ago seemed so important, pale by comparison to those being endured by the brave people of the Ukraine who are facing sophisticated weaponry, cyber-attacks and the unparalleled treachery of a superpower, albeit a failed and fading one. The actions of Putin and his willing accomplices make it clear that as a free people, we can never again afford to be so introspective, self-centered, and greedy as to miss the opportunity to resist forces which are antithetical to free civilizations.

We have underestimated and appeased the sitting governments in Moscow and Beijing, imagining that they shared our values. They most assuredly don’t! Ukraine should serve as a powerful stimulus to renew the same spirit which allowed us to resist and defeat the failed ideas espoused by the Axis Powers and then to endure and ultimately triumph in the long twilight struggle of the Cold War. A free people must always be vigilant. And while we rediscover our own martial spirit, let us do all we can to support the Ukrainian people.


Sincerely,

Charly

Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM
Senior Vice President, USF Health
Dean, Morsani College of Medicine