FACES AND PLACES: Free at last! Free at last! (12/08/91)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Free at last! Free at last!

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almightly, we are free at last!

Those stirring words of an old Negro spiritual so eloquently echoed by the late Rev. Martin Luther King are a true reflection of the feelings shared by Ukrainians throughout the world on December 1, 1991.

By an overwhelming majority the people of Ukraine voted once again to become one, sovereign and independent,

Freedom! How sweet the word, so joyous to express, so difficult to believe after centuries of broken dreams and unparalleled suffering and struggle.

Recall the Muscovite sack of Kiev in 1169. The Tatar/Mongolian devastation of 1240. The tall of Galicia/Volynia in 1349. The Battle of Poltava in 1709. The destruction of the Sich in 1775. The collapse of Ukraine and its partition in the 1920's. The forced famine of 1932-1933. The Nazi terror of the 1940's. Has any nation endured more? Have any people been more death-like in their silence?

Remember also the grandeur and perspicacity of Volodymyr the Great and Yaroslav the Wise. The heroic struggles of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ivan Vyhovsky, and Ivan Mazepa. The literary excellence and patriotism of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and Lesia Ukrainka. The sublime vision of Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Symon Petliura. The selfless determination of Taras Chuprynka and Otaman Borovets. The martyrdom of Vasyl Bilas, Dmytro Danylyshyn, Olha Bassarab, Metropolitan Lypkivsky, Bishop Hryhoriy Khomyshyn, Evhen Konovalets, Oleh Olzhych, Stepan Bandera, Lev Rebet, Volodymyr Ivasiuk and Vasyl Stus. The glorious courage of hundreds of dissidents like Vyacheslav Chornovil, Lev Lukianenko, and Mykhailo Horyn. Does any nation deserve freedom more? Can we ever forget those who gave so much so that we could be where we are today?

There are winners and losers in the December 1 referendum.

The first winners, of course, are the Ukrainian people who will no longer have Moscow breathing down their neck. For the first time in 70 years they have an opportunity to put into practice the ideas of Mykhailo Hrushevsky who envisioned a progressive, multicultural Ukrainian nation-state based on liberty, justice and economic opportunity for all.

Achieving that dream won't be easy on the heels of rule by terror, lies and corruption. But the Ukrainian people will survive their immediate past. They live in a land rich in natural and human resources. They have a centuries-long tradition of self-help and hard work. Most important of all, our people believe in God and prayer.

Ukrainian Americans are also winners in the referendum. No longer will we have to explain to our geopolitically illiterate American neighbors that we are not Russians, that Kiev is not in Russia, that Ukraine is a separate nation with a distinct history, culture and language, and that Ukrainians want to be free of foreign occupation. Just being on the map will take care of all of that!

The referendum produced some losers. The first is Mikhail Gorbachev. It is poetic justice that the day Ukraine was reborn was also the day the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (or whatever USSR stands for this week) ceased to exist. To Ukraine we say Mnohaya Lita. To the USSR we say good riddance.

Poor Mikhail. He thought our president would continue to pull his chestnuts out of the fire for him and instead old George pulled the rug out from under him. That's our George!

Another loser was George Bush. Oh. I know. He met with a Ukrainian American delegation and promised to recognize Ukraine in time, under certain circumstances, and with proper guarantees. Even Brent Scowcroft, sly devil that he is, saw the light. However dimly.

Why the sudden change of heart by the administration? A return to American principles? Give me a break. There were three reasons: polls, polls, polls...

Pre-referendum polls in Ukraine showed passage by a wide margin.

Political polls in the U.S. showed Mr. Bush's popularity fading fast.

And the telephone and letter polls taken by White House staffers demonstrated that perhaps for the first time in our history our community was really united in its anger and used its political muscle to send a message to the President.

There were other losers as well. Sovietologists, for example. With the collapse of the Soviet Union we'll soon have as much need for their "expertise" as we have for wheelwrights.

Once our champagne corks stop popping, however, we need to take a sober look at what lies ahead. There's much economic and political work that has to be tackled but we also need spiritual healing. Lots of it: As Daniel Little suggests in his book Ukraine: A Legacy of Intolerance, Ukrainian aspirations for a pluralistic society face serious consequences unless the age-old religious and ethnic divisions among Ukrainian Catholics, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox and Russian Orthodox are resolved. Soon. We know how painful some of our religious wounds are but they must be tended to if Ukrainians are not to become their own worst enemies.

We can set an example for such healing by calling on our Catholic and Orthodox hierarchs in North America to proclaim a weekend of religious reconciliation in every Ukrainian community. Let God and their imagination dictate how this weekend can best be observed.

If for some reason neither God nor their imagination comes into play, then perhaps it's time for the laity to take the initiative. Christ's message of love, compassion and forgiveness is too important to be left to bishops, clerics, and religious alone.

So my friends, let's celebrate and savor this long-awaited, incredible moment and rejoice that we lived to see this day. But let's also heal our hurts. For ourselves. For our salvation. For Ukraine.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."