Over the past week, our community has been all eyes and ears as Russian forces invade Ukraine, causing heightened tensions across the world. Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine is both unreasonable and irresponsible. The pretext for this invasion is predicated on lies and the desire for conquest.

With reports that the Russian government is indiscriminately bombing civilian and military centers throughout Ukraine, it is clear that the world cannot stand by idly. While Americans might not be the perfect messengers, wars of aggression and blind greed have no place in the 21st century.

The Skyline View stands with Ukrainian students and believes our school and the surrounding community should do everything possible to help during these hard and difficult times. One such action of solidarity would be to publicize drop-in sessions with school counselors to help navigate students through distress.

For those looking to send financial relief, NPR has compiled a list of organizations where donations will go to support Ukraine that can be found here: Want to support the people in Ukraine? Here’s how you can help.

During this time of great stress and uncertainty, we must remember that Russian Americans and Russian international students are not responsible for the actions of the Russian government. It is important to remember that the students who attend Skyline have no say and may not even support the actions taken by Russia.

Our community should resist the calls made by some lawmakers, Eric Swalwell being one, designed to punish innocent students. We do not need to look far back into our history to see the dark stain demonizing ethnic groups based on the actions foreign adversaries leaves on our country.

From cruelly persecuting Middle Eastern Americans after the fallout of 9/11 to the inhumanity of Japanese internment camps, our country has repeatedly chosen to frame Americans as other, as the enemy. We should learn from our failures and focus our anger on the Russian government, not American citizens.

Our collective goal should be relief and support, this is what our community should stand behind.