EDITORIAL: Identity and our roots (08/01/99)

EDITORIAL

Identity and our roots

An old argument has been revisited recently by at least one national organization in Canada. At a meeting of publishers of a Ukrainian Canadian weekly the question posed was whether to increase the English-language content of the newspaper with the aim of attracting more readers and subscribers. Ultimately, however, the matter came down to basics: Will using the English-language help or hurt the Ukrainian identity in Canada?

Some of the older generation argued that increasing the English-language content would serve only to further weaken the already weakened Ukrainian culture and identity in Canada. Others argued that use of English is the only way to attract the majority of Ukrainian Canadians, those of the second, third and fourth generations in that country, whose knowledge of Ukrainian is poor or non-existent.

A natural corollary to that question is: Do you have to know the Ukrainian language in order to be considered Ukrainian? And therein lies the crux of the matter.

That very issue was at the heart of the founding of this newspaper. And the question was answered decisively by the publisher of this newspaper, the Ukrainian National Association, way back in 1933 when the fraternal benefit society decided to publish a special English-language newspaper "dedicated to the needs and interests of young Americans of Ukrainian descent."

The inauguration of The Weekly came at a time of much-needed reassessment and a time when unity was sorely needed in the face of the destruction of the Ukrainian nation. It was time also to "reclaim" American youths of Ukrainian ancestry who had become alienated from the older generation and were on the verge of assimilation. Editor Stephen Shumeyko, then 25 years old, saw the new paper's role vis-à-vis Ukrainian American youths as "inculcat(ing) them with the idea that, as Americans of Ukrainian descent, they are duty-bound to help their kinsmen in foreign-occupied and oppressed Ukraine to win the national freedom for which they have been fighting and sacrificing for so many years."

The Weekly was not the first venture of this kind sponsored by the UNA. Since the mid-1920s, the UNA leadership was becoming increasingly concerned with how to maintain the younger generation's interest in the Ukrainian American community and how to prevent this generation from becoming completely assimilated into the American milieu. As early as 1925, certain UNA members had proposed that what was needed was an English-language publication for the younger generation. Soon thereafter the UNA began publishing The Ukrainian Juvenile Magazine. In the late 1920s some even suggested that Svoboda be published 50-50 in Ukrainian and English; indeed, on occasion, Svoboda published English-language sections. Then came the influence of current events in the 1930s: the Polish pacification campaign directed at Ukrainians living under its rule and the Great Famine orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in Ukraine. Svoboda began publishing selected articles in the English language that would be accessible to all Americans. In 1933 the UNA convention voted to begin publishing an English-language weekly newspaper.

The Weekly's founding demonstrated the belief that, in and of itself, language is not a determinant of one's identification or concern for one's nation or homeland. The Ukrainian Weekly became a pioneer in propagating the idea that one did not have to speak, read and write Ukrainian to be Ukrainian, that what mattered most was what was in one's heart and mind. In so doing it preserved and sustained generations of Ukrainian Americans as influential members of our community.

| Home Page |