Ukraine and liver disease — hate and love

It’s certainly not news that the world is full of opposites — life and death, beauty and ugliness, good and evil. That’s hardly worth saying.

I was struck this week, though, by the contrast between two stories — the one about the war in Ukraine, and the one telling the story of the Pollack family as they search for a liver for their father, Hugh.

The story from Ukraine is about bloody war and grotesque destruction and how the West has to send impossibly tremendous war machines, tanks that roll over and demolish whatever’s in their path, to fight against the Russians. Hundreds of thousands of lives already have been sacrificed on the altar erected by Vladimir Putin, drunk with power, unconcerned about the pain he’s caused, seemingly propelled only by his need to declare victory.

It’s about wholesale destruction.

It’s about hatred.

The story of Hugh Pollack is the opposite. It’s about one man’s life; beyond that, it’s about the doctors and scientists who devote themselves to curing disease, one person at a time. It’s about the family and friends and acquaintances and possibly strangers who would love to save his life, and the qualified donor who might emerge from that group.

It’s about retail medical care.

It’s about love.

If you want to help Dr. Pollack, or just to learn more about liver disease, go to www.nyp.org/livingdonorliver or call Weill Cornell Medicine at (646) 962-4438.

To help Ukrainian refugees, you can consider donating to the Jewish National Fund. Go to www.jnf.org and search for Ukraine relief. Or consider the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; just go to jdc.org and scroll down the home page.

Love has to conquer hate.

–JP

Opinion

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