If you missed this week’s Colorado Politics Weekend Roundup, you missed some good stuff. I recommend you sign up for the weekly email, it’s an excellent summary. You can sign up on the website. Go ahead, I’ll wait here…

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In my last column I professed my belief that the Putin invasion of Ukraine would prove, over the weeks and months to come, to be a disaster for Russia. Given the world’s reaction in the past few days, I feel even more strongly that Putin made a massive miscalculation.

Which, of course, brings me to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

There was an important story in the most recent Weekend Roundup that featured our governor and which showed true leadership coming from the Polis regarding his actions to sanction Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. And while it is true that the most important and impactful sanctions on Russia will come from national-level governments and various Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Polis did not take a pass on trying to do what he could as governor to show support for the people of Ukraine.

Polis stated that, “we stand with a free and independent Ukraine and want to do everything we can to make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin pay for this act of aggression,” and then announced a series of steps he is taking to put as much pressure as possible on the Putin dictatorship. Polis declared that PERA, the state retirement system, will divest itself of any Russian-owned assets, and that our state’s public colleges and universities will remove any Russian assets from their various endowment programs. Polis also ordered state agencies to review all state contracts to see if any include Russian businesses and if so, to terminate them. In a more symbolic action, Polis also pulled Colorado from the Houston-based Russian Consular office.

Now, I can almost hear the shouts of the cynics, reminding us that Colorado’s total investments in Russia are tiny and that Polis’s action will almost certainly have no impact on Russian foreign policy.

And that is correct.

But I would remind everyone of the story of the man walking the beach at low tide, where thousands of starfish had been stranded on the beach and were dying. The man was picking up one starfish at a time and tossing them back in the water. He did this again and again. A cynic passing by and asked why he bothered, since there where thousands of stranded creatures. He can’t really make any significant difference, the cynic declared. The gent picked up another starfish, looked at it briefly, before tossing it into the ocean. “Made a difference for that one,” he said.

Symbols matter, even if it is just tossing a starfish or two back into the water. But it is also true that if other states follow the Polis example, those many small divestitures might just add up to a point that they inflict real pain on, say, one of Putin’s kleptocracy buddies. As Putin is likely to feel more and more isolated as time passes, a close advisor or business partner expressing concern might have an effect.

The next question will be how we, regular Coloradans, handle things that are coming. While there are solid majorities of Americans (and I’m quite sure folks from Colorado as well) who currently say they stand with the Ukrainians, the test of that resolve is coming soon to everyone.

It’s easy to say we oppose the Putin invasion, but as such events directly impact the price of oil (over $100 per-barrel now), the real test of our resolve for many will come at the pump. Will we accept that we must shoulder some of the pain (though nothing, of course, compared to what the actual Ukrainian fighters are experiencing) or will we start to hear voices demanding that President Biden do something to lower gas prices (although, frankly, there is almost nothing a president can actually do to impact international markets, but I’m guessing most Trumpers won’t let facts stand in the way of a good Biden grumble).

Polis has already included a suspension of the state’s 2-cent-per-gallon fee (as part of his larger COVID and economic plan) in his next budget. A two-cent cut is nice, but that really won’t do much to ease the pump pain of many. But again, symbols matter, and for huge consumers of fuel (such as trucking companies) a couple of cents will help.

We are fortunate to have a governor who works hard within our borders but who also recognizes that there are things beyond our state – and indeed, our nation – that require careful attention and unflinching action. I hope my fellow Coloradans are ready to truly stand with Ukraine in the months ahead. It will certainly be a bumpy road, but one that common morality requires us to traverse. Polis is showing the way.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.