Camel from Kyzylkum

Epilogue

FROM JANUARY 2017 TO January 2021, I was terrified to watch the onset of Trump’s tyranny in our country. I saw such familiar signs—I experienced all of them in the Soviet Union! I ran for a better life from the country where I was born. The Soviet Union controlled its citizens with a regime of tyranny. This regime sustained itself in political power by controlling mass media that was disseminating propaganda, by the secret police, by restrictions of free speech and criticism, by mass surveillance and political purges, by the persecution of specific groups of people. The Constitution in the United States was designed to prevent tyranny through a system of checks and balances. We might be tempted to think that our democratic heritage automatically protects us, but in President Trump’s America, those safeguards were failing. Trump held the grandiose belief that only he should rule America. Unchecked by cowed or complicit Republicans in Congress, Trump invoked executive authority to alter policies that were long-established by law and practices. Trump is the only president in the United States who was impeached twice. He came to our lives with a scandal and indecency and he is exiting from our lives with a scandal and indecency.

I’m so relieved that during the election of 2020, democracy prevailed. But we all witnessed how fragile our democracy is. Even though the horrible Trump presidency is over and Joe Biden won the election of 2020, Trump keeps spreading the lie and pretending that the election was stolen from him.

The January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol is one of the most unforgettable events in American history and in my life. The Capitol building was last breached when British forces invaded during the War of 1812. Two hundred and nine years later, a mob of insurrectionists attacked the building at the behest of none other than the sitting, but on-the-way-out, U.S. President Donald Trump. Videos from the scene show Capitol police at worst unprepared and at best overwhelmed by the sheer size of the crowd. I watched on TV in disbelief how easily the rioters were able to enter the Capitol building. Trump supporters invaded the Capitol from multiple points—videos and images show the rioters scaling walls, smashing windows, and breaking down doors to get into and advance through the building. Many lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence, were evacuated to safe locations.

Just recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created a select special committee to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, while most GOP members opposed the creation of the committee.

I’m still worried and wondering what is going to happen during elections in 2022 and 2024 and in what direction this country will be heading?

The year 2020 was one of the hardest years, not only for us personally, but for the entire country, and even the entire world. The COVID-19 pandemic covered the world with darkness and despair. It has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide. In the United States, over 600,000 people have died from COVID-19 since January 2020. The coronavirus pandemic was the defining global health crisis of our time and the greatest challenge we have faced since World War II. But the pandemic was much more than a health crisis. It was also an unprecedented socio-economic crisis. Every day, people were losing jobs and income, with no way of knowing when normality would return. Businesses were closing, children were struggling to learn online, and families did not have enough food.

Sparky and I are lucky to be in the stage of our lives when we do not have to worry about our jobs, or income, or how to keep a roof above our heads. We spared ourselves from contracting the virus by being very careful and spending most of the year inside our house. On October 14, 2020, we quietly celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We got our first Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it became available in January-February, 2021. We canceled all our trips that were planned a long time ago. Instead, I spent my time writing this story, a story of our family, a story of my journey from Ukraine to the Kyzylkum Desert, through immigration to freedom, from Buffalo, NY to the shores of sunny Florida in the United States.

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Life is a long journey. Life is extremely interesting and is a source of joy, but at the same time, it is hard and complicated. Anything can happen in life—unexpected surprises, ups and downs, injustice, betrayal, luck, or tragedy. Life’s adversities help people become stronger. As they say, in order to harden steel, a high temperature needs to be created. As a camel from Kyzylkum, I plan to keep going through my life journey, swaying like a ship on the waves of time—the high temperature of life’s hardships and troubles makes me stronger. Even among the weeds and thorns of life, one can blossom. The main thing is to never give up on your dreams and to be yourself.

Never regret a day in your life: good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience, the worst days give you lessons, and the best days give you memories.

July 2, 2021, Valencia Lakes, Southwest Florida.