When I was in the fourth grade in 1956-7, we had a refugee girl from the Hungarian Revolution in class. She was a light complexioned girl with blonde pigtails. I don’t remember her having a lot of English language skills to start but she was learning before she left to go somewhere else. I don’t remember if she was with other family members. I only said hello a few times because she was very shy. Her name was Magdalena.

            If our little community of 3,000 hosted a refugee family, will we all soon start to host Ukrainians? As I write this over two and a half million Ukrainians, almost all women and children, have left for other countries. The expectation is three times as many in the next few months will be refugees. I expect some will soon be coming to North America. Will they ever go back is the question. If Putin’s lackeys take over they probably won’t. The cities will be devastated for decades and they won’t have a place to live for years to come. Hundreds of thousands will make new lives and never go back. Will they still be welcomed in a few years?