While I was growing up in the 1980s, movie villains were Russian. That was my context until I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Russia from 1997-99. I taught English, explained various things about the U.S. from my perspective and made friends in a village of 1,000 people along the Amur River.

I found Russians to be generous, loving, creative, proud and resilient. They welcomed me into their homes and holidays, sharing deeply and comparing what we had been told about one another. I discovered we were both wildly different and just the same.

Those friends still feel like family. Like our families, it is a fallacy to assume that all Russians see the situation in the same way. My close friends have expressed opinions ranging from full support to frustration and helplessness to antiwar. My heart breaks, and I reject Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions. And I'm paralyzed knowing that Russian media broadcasts a different story than what we are getting. People I love and who loved me likely think they are saving women and children from genocide, fighting fascists. It seems like an alternate reality, but if that's what I truly believed, I'd have strong feelings too.

I implore us to remember that in "us vs. them" times, we have to see the humanity that we share as civilians who want safe homes, family and friends, and who want to enjoy work and rest and live another day. I am infinitely grateful to have many, many stories of Russian kindness that accompany the news.

Joayne Larson, Minneapolis

•••

On Feb. 24 American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers said in an interview with CNN that oil companies would not take advantage of the war in Ukraine to increase profits. Have we seen any evidence of that? It should be pointed out that it takes weeks for a barrel of oil to go from the well to the gas pump, no matter how we receive it. So, the gas you buy today at nearly $4 per gallon was bought at the price a barrel of oil cost weeks ago. The increase is all profit. The oil industry tries to justify this by suggesting that it charges on the basis of what it will be paying, not one what it is paying. But during turbulent times oil prices fluctuate a lot, and they are rarely based on actual supply or even actual demand but projections of the two.

If anyone has noticed, there is no actual shortage of gas at the moment, but we are paying a price as if there were. The reality is no one has any idea if there will ever be enough of a gas shortage to justify these kinds of price hikes. And as always, when the price of oil does go down, no matter how fast, the drop in gas prices lags significantly behind the drop in oil prices. This has been an ongoing theme with the oil industry for decades, and it yields a ponderous profit for the industry at our expense.

Russia's war with Ukraine is a gift to the oil industry, and Sommers' assertion that the oil industry is patriotic is a cruel joke.

Thomas Jesberg, East Bethel

•••

Many are complaining about the hardship of the high cost of gasoline, currently about $3.90 per gallon in Minnesota.

How about some comparisons?

• The price of a Starbucks 12-ounce latte means it costs around $32 per gallon.
• A 17-ounce bottle of Dasani water from Target costs around $5.30 per gallon.
• One can of 12-ounce Coke from Target costs around $4.57 per gallon.
• One can of Budweiser beer from Walmart costs around $10.66 per gallon.

We can still make choices!

Not to mention we aren't being invaded by a foreign army, don't have bombs landing on our homes or sons and daughters at war, nor are we forced to flee to another country.

And we are very fortunate to live in America!

Count your blessings.

James Halvorson, Farmington

•••

To be an American is not about place, race or heritage. It is about knowing that freedom and rights are God-given gifts that we dare not take for granted and that we must always fight to preserve and expand. It is to believe that all men and women are created equal, and that free people can do remarkable things, individually and collectively.

The valiant men and women of Ukraine are bravely reminding us of what is important and how high the stakes are — and what the price can be — when fighting tyranny and organized evil.

Pregnant women are huddled with their young children in basements to avoid the cruel and vicious attack led by Putin, a true war criminal. Brave Ukrainian soldiers are fighting a massive war machine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is standing strong and proud against overwhelming power.

The people of Ukraine are teaching us now, through their blood, sweat and tears, what we in this country need to relearn and rededicate ourselves to. Freedom and democracy take great work and sacrifice and commitment to the truth, and all of that extraordinary effort is very much worth it.

Democracy in America is being subverted by those who want to make it more difficult for struggling Americans to vote. Our democracy is at risk from those who want to mislead the people about the integrity of our current election process and politicize it for their gain.

How grand it will be when we have enough leaders in America to defend and expand our democracy with the same fortitude and resolve that Ukrainians are showing now.

Todd Otis, Minneapolis

TEACHERS' STRIKE

Administrators, step up

Today I listened to the superintendent of Minneapolis Schools say essentially that the teachers need to figure this out themselves because there isn't enough money, and the students need to be in school. This is a guy making $230,000 a year telling teachers who make maybe $70,000 that they need to keep teaching, He gets paid three times what they get paid, but they should figure this out? What is his job? If there isn't enough money in the budget to pay your teachers and your paraprofessionals a living wage, perhaps you should cut out huge administrative salaries. Especially when those administrators can't even figure out how to make their schools a place where the teachers and paras earn a living wage and teachers and students have the support they need and deserve.

Holly Ristau, Inver Grove Heights

•••

"We love our kiddos." "Our students are our family." "As teachers we want the best for children."

Minneapolis teachers are talking the talk but not walking the walk!

Teachers entered this field knowing their earning potential. Now when the world, COVID and the economy are disrupting especially the lives of school students, they are only out for themselves. Teachers are abandoning the needs of their students during a very confusing time in the lives of those students.

Step up, teachers! End your selfish strike and return to the classroom now. Teach the children, love the children and make their lives seemed valued. Shame on you.

Jane Gordon, Minnetonka

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