For quite some time I’ve found myself longing for a true hero.

I am so sick of negativity, fed up with those who criticize everything but don’t offer any good ideas of their own.

I am tired, too, of so-called leaders who make every issue political, whether or not it should be.

When I turn on the news it doesn’t take long for my soul to be overcome with the gloom and doom with which we are fed.

Where are the leaders who give us hope, who help us to believe again in the goodness of people and in the strength of our country?

When I’ve watched documentaries about the inspired leadership of Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy, I wondered if we would ever a have another leader who could inspired us - one who made us believe in him and in his mission to make things better.

It took devastating circumstances for the world to discover that hero in the bombed-out country of Ukraine.

That unlikely hero, of course, Is Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the 44-year-old president of Ukraine.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine and claim it as his own, he didn’t expect the resistance it would encounter.

According to some accounts, Putin thought the Ukrainian people would welcome his troops with flowers, not resistance. Instead, the Ukrainians are fiercely fighting off the invaders.

It hasn’t been without tragic loss for both sides.

Who hasn’t been moved to tears over videos showing children with their legs blown off and mothers and their babies killed in a maternity ward by Russian bombs?

One photo that tore at my heart was that of a father and his young son looking in shock while standing outside of the rubble that was once their home.

I’ve been thinking ever since about what it must feel like to have everything snatched from you - your home, your family, your personal safety.

When the United States reached out to Zelenskyy to offer him a flight out of Ukraine, the leader wasn’t even tempted to think of himself.

“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” he said.

How many other country leaders do you think would put fighting for his country over their personal freedom?

Zelenskyy has been more than a leader in the war thrust upon them.

While his leadership during the fighting has been strong, what made me elevate him to hero status was the way he personally reached out to gain the support of other countries by doing video talks and showing them heart-wrenching footage of the carnage in Ukraine.

In a move that I believe was unprecedented, he gave powerful video talks to the U.K., the U.S., Canada, France, Israel, Germany and Japan.

His talks were so powerful that officials and news outlets in several countries are calling him another Winston Churchill.

I had tears rolling down my face as I watch his presentation to U.S. lawmakers.

The only word I can use to describe that talk was “masterful.”

Examine, for instance, how he first sincerely thanked President Biden for all his help before he begged him to do more.

“Be the leader of the free world,” he pleaded.

Zelenskyy backed up his plea for help by showing videos detailing the horrors Putin is inflicting on Ukraine’s people.

In each talk he made clear he wasn’t asking other countries to fight. He was asking only that they equip the Ukrainians with what they need to fight their own war.

The talks were so effective that each country has upped the help they will give. He didn’t get the “no-fly zone” he wants, but support keeps building as other countries recognize what continued war might mean to the world order.

While many regard Zelenskyy as a hero, not everyone is lining up to sing his praises. I listened to one broadcaster say, “He’s not a hero. He’s just an entertainer.”

Unbelievable.

For the past few years I’ve been rereading about the Holocaust when millions of European Jews were exterminated in Nazi death camps.

All that keeps going through my mind is why. Why did the rest of the world let this happen?

It seems impossible to believe that much of the world sat by while all that horror was going on.

When years go by and we look back on what happened to the good people of Ukraine through no fault of their own, I wonder if we will sit there wondering how we let that happen.

Will we be able to look back and say we did everything we could?

Meanwhile, we don’t know from day to day what new horrors will come from Putin.

Zelenskyy isn’t the only hero in my book. All the Ukrainian men who fought for their country and all the good people who remain strong through all that has been inflicted upon them are heroes in my book.

I pray for them all.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.