San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Drawn to this ‘fundamental moment for Liberty’
As Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine grinds on, many can’t resist its powerful pull.
Outside the besieged country, we’re immersed in breaking news, social media snapshots and dialogue about the conflict as volunteers from around the world rush to help train, fight, document and provide humanitarian aid.
With each day, I hear of more friends and acquaintances swept up in the steady flow of foreigners headed to Ukraine. They join the millions moved by the draw of evil conflict throughout history.
Last week, Paul Schwennesen, a college classmate and fellow history major, posted online that he was headed to Ukraine.
We’d been out of touch for years, but his new mission sparked a reconnection, and we’ve corresponded via email.
Like most of us, he watched the war boil up from afar until one day on a long drive home he “heard a report about little kids kissing their fathers goodbye.”
Something within the 43-yearold father of three clicked, and he knew he had to go. He wrote, “if the world can stand up hard and fast against this kind of trespass against Liberty, then maybe there is hope this will end soon.”
The former Air Force officer with experience in Afghanistan called the war “a fundamental moment for Liberty: for the world to push back and defend
the right to choose individual autonomy over centralized autocracy.”
Armed with master’s degrees in history and political philosophy, as well as an in-progress doctorate focused on the 16thcentury Spanish New World, there’s no doubt the lessons of the past played in his mind as he prepared for the trip.
People must choose to stand up against atrocity.
Schwennesen, a second-generation Arizona cattle rancher, said he “respectfully ignored” the U.S. government’s warnings to stay away from Ukraine as his “loose affiliation of Liberty-minded academics and policy wonks”
quickly repurposed itself “into a global and keenly effective resistance network.”
He’s on the ground with a team that’s coordinating with the Ukrainian parliament and medical nongovernmental organizations. The group of about 45 people from around the world is setting up “forward operating locations to ship in humanitarian aid/defensive tactical gear and get refugee families out to the West.”
Humanitarian work has taken him to other troubled places, but the conflict in Ukraine is different. He called the war “a genuine contest of might and right.”
When asked about an image that’s struck him, he described “a
young family out for a stroll — little girl in a pink coat, mom carrying an umbrella, and the dad in brand new military uniform — undoubtedly a new recruit.”
Where is that family today? Benthe Dore, Schwennesen’s spouse — a native of the Netherlands living in the U.S. — supports the endeavor from afar. She coordinates communications and fundraising. They’ve raised $15,000 so far. The money helps buy equipment and supplies like protective gear, medication, fuel and food.
She’s also used online food delivery services for those on the ground. The menu was in Polish, so the meal was a surprise.
Dore said her husband is “very passionate” about defending people’s liberties.
“Although it’s hard to see him go into a potentially dangerous zone, it’s something he feels strongly about, and I’m not holding him back,” she said. “I believe it is for a good cause.”
The Russian missiles that struck near the Western city of Lviv on March 13 highlighted the risks. Before that, she said, they thought western Ukraine was reasonably safe.
And the perception of reasonable safety is about the best you can get in a war zone.
He’s averaging 16 to 20 hour days, and after joking about how he should be writing his dissertation, he wrote this vivid snapshot: “broad open expanses of church-dotted countryside with the iconic black soils of the breadbasket of Europe spotted in snow. Road barriers and checkpoints that look straight out of Saving Private Ryan. Cold gray skies, and a sort of ominous sense off in the distance like an impending storm. People in cities behaving pretty much normally, but with a kind of furtive and suspicious glance — no welcoming smiles or big thumbs up like in Afghanistan.
Rumors of Russian infiltration and sabotage are so rife that everyone looks downright unhappy.”
I’m grateful to my classmate and all those volunteering to help Ukraine. May they all return safely and soon.