25 Years

5 years ago this evening I went to the theater in Kyiv to listen to the orchestra play a performance on night the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. It was mournful and yet still full of spirit. A bit like the Ukrainian people, one could say.

I think about how quickly those 5 years have passed, and how within this past year we have witnessed another catastrophic event in Japan involving radiation from nuclear reactors.

25 years ago, I would have been 8. My memories of that time are vague. And like watching a movie with the lens covered in a thick gauze.

It's strange to think that 25 years ago I was sitting in a classroom and would eventually hear (as the rest of the world would alert us to what the Soviets tried to cover up) of this "nuclear fallout."

As a child, I was always interested in other places--their customs and holidays have always fascinated me most of all. I remember getting the impression that we were to fear the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan perhaps gave me that idea, but it was perpetuated through the media, and perhaps even my parents.

I would have sat in that classroom, or in front of that tv all of those years ago and not had any idea where Ukraine was or even what it was. And yet, fast-forward 20 years later, and it is my adopted home and I am seated in the nation's capital, in their renowned theater, listening as the nation commemorates one of their greatest tragedies.

I met people who were affected by the Chernobyl disaster. People whose lives are still affected, as so many people (especially children) were relocated to other places to live. Even school age children today display the symptoms of the radiation poisoning that still exists in certain pockets of the country. While tourist companies may claim that it is safe to visit the zone, they won't be getting any of my dollars anytime soon.

So many things have changed, included the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Many scholars attribute what happened on April 26, 1986 as being a key event that shone the light on the corruption of the Soviet government to the rest of the world and of the Union's inability to manage and oversee its own infrastructure. That is to say nothing of their complete disregard for the people in the surrounding towns, like Pripyat and those individuals sent to fight the fires in the reactor, basically getting marching orders to go to their graves.

One of the most memorable museums I have ever been to is the Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum which I visited upon my return to Ukraine in the summer of 2009. I believe I cried at several different points in this small museum, finding it to be so moving, and so utterly sad that this international catastrophe could have been avoided and at how callous and corrupt the Soviet government had become.

This evening, I especially remember Ukraine...