Last week I posted an article expressing my gratitude to my grandparents for having had the courage to leave their homeland in Ukraine in 1905 to travel across an ocean in order to build a better life in America. And I meant every word.

Because of them, I was born and raised in a land of plenty, of security, and of boundless hope. I did not have to experience the horrors of Naziism, Stalinism, or Putinism.

Of course, the one thing they could not possibly have foreseen was Trumpism. That is my generation’s punishment for having taken our blessings for granted and for allowing ourselves to become complacent . . . and it is certainly not what my grandparents would have wanted for their descendants.

So this morning, when I read that September 7th will mark the 135th anniversary of the first Ukrainian wave of immigration from Ukraine to Canada, and that that first diaspora continued from 1891 to 1914 — the very period during which my grandparents headed west to settle in Rhode Island — my first thought was . . .

“DAMN! A little farther north, and I could have been Canadian!”

*. *. *

I have been privileged to do some traveling in the past, and I have found much to love in every country I’ve visited . . . including Canada. But I have always been proud to be carrying my U.S. passport, and to be able to come back to my happy place.

So, for me to think “Damn . . . I could have been Canadian” comes as quite a shock to my psyche. But I have to be honest: if I were younger, and met the qualifications, I might be considering moving across the border right now — at least on an extended stay until the plague of Trumpism has passed.

It pains me to admit it, but I am one of the tens (or hundreds) of millions of Americans who are horrified by what is happening to our beautiful country, and ashamed to be even an unwilling part of it. But it does bring a significant measure of comfort to know that our good neighbors to the north — from the French speakers of Quebec to the Inuit of the Yukon Territory — are still there, patiently waiting for us to pull through and regain our humanity.

And now I find myself daring to ask: Are you sure you wouldn’t like to claim us as your 11th province? “South Canada” suddenly has a nice ring to it.

And I’m sure Greenland would concur.

Just sayin’ . . ..

Brendochka
9/2/26