Ukraine: Films & Conversation in Burlington, Iowa

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I would never refer to myself as a "big fish" or Burlington, Iowa, as a "small pond, but it's nice to go somewhere like Burlington where the waitress at the diner is like, "You're in town to speak at the Capitol Theater downtown aren't you?" and engage in a dialogue with them and in this case, talk about Ukraine.

It turns out Burlington, Iowa, has some intelligent folks, beginning, of course, with Kara Ewinger, who manages the historic renovated theater and had the foresight and idea to team me up with my pal and talented filmmaker Rick Ray to showcase our different perspectives of a country, people, and culture fighting for its very existence with clips from Rick's "Be Safe: Stories from Ukraine" video series and my "My Summer in Ukraine" docu-series.

And then the supportive media community. I've never done so many radio interviews back-to-back-to-back. It's challenging to remember what you just said or said in another radio interview a few minutes before, and it's exhausting.

Besides the signage and flyers Kara had posted around town, Rick and I made the front page of Iowa's oldest newspaper, The Hawk Eye, the day of the event. My little hometown paper in Tennessee has yet to publish a peep about my Ukrainian efforts, and here's a newspaper far away showing us some front-page love. Maybe I need a new hometown? With the beautiful downtown overlooking the Mississippi River, I could see why folks are attracted to Burlington.

And then there are the big-hearted Burlingtoners? Burlintonians? I don't know what they're called (I'll find out), but they have big hearts. They showed up in force and almost filled the theater to capacity. The crowd was a mix of young and older adults with various perspectives.

It also turns out Burlington is home to scores of Ukrainian refugee families who have made Iowa their new home. Many of them showed up to support and meet Rick and me in person. I remembered why I went to the trouble and expense of creating "My Summer in Ukraine" (certainly not for the social media likes or fan mail), and it was for these folks.

Many settled here through the generosity and kindness of local Burlington residents who have sponsored these families. Most of them came from one man's efforts: Bob Bartles and his lovely wife Carol, who, shocker, are also big-time travelers, and arrange for their neighbors to sponsor families trying to flee the violence.

Bob gave a short talk just after our screening, welcoming the families and their sponsors. He asked anyone else in the audience interested in sponsoring any families on his extensive waiting list to contact him.

Thanks to Carol and Bob, one of Rick's families featured in a couple of his films that we screened, "The Exhumer," may be coming to Iowa as a direct result of our event. This outcome alone would have made our efforts to screen our work in Burlington worthwhile.

I want to thank the lovely people of Burlington, Iowa, for their hospitality and support for Rick, me, and the Ukrainian refugees.

Burlington residents are inundated by the same Russian-inspired propaganda as the rest of us. Still, unlike Tommy Tuberville, Rand Paul, Tim Burchett, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and countless other politicians who supposedly work at the behest of USA Taxpayer-funded salaries, these good folks can see first-hand that Ukraine values are American values and that their fight is our fight; otherwise, their plight (thousands of dead soldiers) becomes OUR plight.

But alas, I know there are "idiots" in Burlington, too. How do I know? I certainly didn't meet any personally, but when I was raving about the good people of Burlington, a waitress at Perkins enthusiastically agreed but then added the caveat "except for the idiots," which I think would apply most anywhere in the world, especially in this day and age where up is down, right is wrong, and blue is red.

Yet it's comforting to know that in this small town in America's heartland, common sense and decency still rule the roost—or at least they did this evening at the Capitol Theater in lovely downtown Burlington, Iowa.

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about sponsoring a refugee family in your area, please visit Welcome.us or contact me directly.