Ann Carter, a seventh generation native of Carroll County, has particular empathy for the people in Ukraine who are under shelling attacks by the Russian army. More than 4 million people have fled the country, thousands have been killed, and many more thousands have been devastated by the loss of their homes, hospitals and schools, and by the deaths of loved ones, including Ukrainian soldiers defending their country.
“I have some insight into the long-term impacts of the war in Ukraine because my father, Arthur Carter, was a Marine who was a prisoner of war throughout much of World War II where he fought for his survival for four-and-a-half years after he was in the Bataan Death March,” Carter said.
The Bataan Death March in the Philippines near the beginning of the war occurred when the Imperial Japanese Army forced 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners to march until they died. An estimated 1,000 Americans and 9,000 Filipino prisoners died.
Carter grew up in a situation where her father was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because of what he suffered in the war.
“One of my earliest memories as a very young child was learning that my father had been in a death camp and that he was challenged by the horrors and brutality he had experienced in the war,” Carter said. “It gives me empathy for Ukrainian people who are in a terrible situation because of the long-lasting results of that kind of fight. I grew up watching the horrible effects of his suffering on our family. I was afraid in my home every day as a child.”
The Philippines was lost at the beginning of World War II, which meant her father was incarcerated under brutal conditions for a long time. He experienced his friends being murdered or starved to death. Ann Carter said horrors like that stress someone to the maximum of what they can endure. And, at that time, the U.S. military provided little help for soldiers with PTSD.
“There wasn’t a system then to help soldiers,” she said. “They were told, ‘You are alive. Go home.’ My father had nightmares. He couldn’t sleep. He would keep his light on throughout the night. He had daily rages and he self-medicated with alcohol. He kept trying to alleviate his suffering. He didn’t have the kind of counseling that I hope is offered to veterans today, and that I hope will be used to help the Ukrainian people if they go back home or end up in a foreign land as refugees.”
Trying to help someone who is suffering from PTSD is difficult. Even today there isn’t broad acknowledgement of how war has a ripple effect that goes out from those involved to their families and communities.
“It just keeps spreading out and having horrible effects on people,” Carter said. “I have the greatest respect for my father for all that he was able to accomplish considering the things life had given him to deal with. I honor his memory knowing he was able to offer so much to Carroll County with a life of service in spite of what he had endured in his life.”
Her father was Carroll County Judge from 1950 to 1978 and later in the Arkansas House of Representatives.
Carter doesn’t watch the war on television. She doesn’t have a television, making a personal decision to do other things with her time. Her advice to others watching the horrors unfold in Ukraine is “don’t binge watch.”
“Be cognizant of what is happening but be aware the human system can only take in so much suffering,” Carter said. “I don’t think we need all the suffering of the world coming to us through a screen each day. I think it overloads our system in a way that is very bad for human beings.”
What to do? She uses the maxim, “Think globally, act locally.” While you can’t go to Ukraine to help, think of things you can do such as sending donations to organizations providing humanitarian relief. Work locally on issues like environmental and climate protection. Helps others in the community in need.
“Try to offer with a generous spirit, but we also have to know there is only so much a person can do,” Carter said.
She also counts and concentrates on the blessings provided by living in the Ozarks.
“I have a great love for Eureka Springs and the people here,” she said. “I have always wanted to live here and have such gratitude for being able to live in my chosen place. I lived in other places, but this is my home.”