LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (01/30/00)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Yes, we should hire a PR firm

Dear Editor:

In response to Andrea Odezynska-Ihnat's letter about the lack of media coverage of the Famine commemoration march in New York City, I agree with her when she states that perhaps we should hire a public relations firm to obtain press coverage.

We, as Americans of Ukrainian descent, do not have the faintest idea of how to use the media. I have been employed by ABC, NBC and the CBS television network and I can tell you from first-hand experience that it takes more than a simple press release to generate press coverage.

Public relations professionals make it their business each and every day to maintain contacts with newspaper and magazine editors and television news producers. We might think that a one-page press release may generate a Ukrainian Famine news story when in contrast, a public relations firm might include still photos, a copy of a book such as Miron Dolot's, "Execution by Hunger" or Robert Conquest's, "Harvest of Sorrow," and a videocassette of the film "The Harvest of Despair" in their press kit.

We need a media watchdog that will monitor the press and distribute information and demand corrections. Just last week, a writer on the New York Daily News editorial board wrote an article which stated that during World War II, Ukrainians massacred Polish Catholics. In the December 31, 1999, issue of PEOPLE magazine (page 196), Prince Volodymyr of Kyivan Rus' is referred to as Vladimir of Russia. Clearly an educated and respected response is required.

I can't tell you how many times I have called and written the media to correct the incorrect reference "the Ukraine." Why is it that The Ukrainian Weekly is the only publication that spells Ukraine's capital city as Kyiv while the rest of the media still spells Kiev. What value is there if no one else applies the new spelling that is preferred by the government of Ukraine.

Make no mistake, setting up a organization to oversee such matters would be costly, and hiring a public relations firm to do the work would probably be even costlier, but it is very important. The burden cannot be the diaspora's alone as Ukraine must realize how crucial public information is, especially if it envisions improving, it's struggling economy.

Ukraine should consider promoting itself for tourism but first it must protect its culture, enhance its image and defend its dignity.

Roman Iwasiwka
Accord, N.Y.

FDR one of best U.S. presidents

Dear Editor:

Myron Kuropas offered an appraisal of Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 8) in the same vein as numerous conservative Republican faithful before him had done, some of them driven by profound phobias. In prudent contrast, the former President Ronald Reagan, the conservative icon, usually showed a measured respect for FDR's legacy, at least in his public utterances.

Not coincidentally, Mr. Reagan's perceptiveness goes back to his own Keynesian economic priming and his monumental budget deficits that tripled the national debt and made FDR look like an apostle of fiscal frugality. FDR's detractors routinely forget this and paint him as a prolific spender.

Reciting the standard rote of FDR Bashing 101 (e.g. "he was a closet socialist, a believer in planned economy; he was instrumental in precipitating a war; he happily turned over all of Eastern Europe to Stalin"), Mr. Kuropas is having difficulties in distinguishing between the real world and ideological fantasies. As I recall, Stalin did not solicit FDR's permission to drive the victorious Red Army into the middle of Europe.

It is worthwhile to recall of a watershed - in FDR's memorable words during one of his fireside chats, of "America's rendezvous with destiny" - a defining moment of a civil society created during his 12 years in the White House, which the American people since that time have been taking for granted until the Congressional elections of 1994, when it came under attack from the right-wing majority.

Following the 1929 stock market crash, the calamity of the Great Depression laid waste to the lives of millions of Americans and destroyed their faith in the ability to survive in a country as they knew it.

The economy had collapsed. Unlike some countries in Western Europe, America had no safety net. No unemployment compensation system, no Social Security pensions and no welfare entitlements. America's socio-economic setting was still languishing in the 19th century. The United States was faced either with a peaceful revolution or a violent overthrow of the capitalist system.

FDR's predecessor, Herbert Hoover, a kind but dogmatic man, believed that America's laissez-faire economy would rebound by itself, without government's interference. As the unemployment ranks grew longer and banks collapsed like dominoes, taking the savings of ordinary people into a black hole, he prophesized a recovery around the corner. Hoover's mishandling of the veterans' Bonus March on the Potomac, which ended in bloodshed, exacerbated the sense of crisis felt by the average citizen.

Elected by a landslide in 1932, FDR threw ideology into the wastebasket and committed the federal government to move the country out of its perilous predicament. His agenda was to try unconventional measures and, if that did not work, he would keep trying something different and then some.

The result was the New Deal reforms that brought America into the 20th century, saved the capitalist system from its own excesses, and infuriated the upper class.

Foremost among the reforms were federal guarantees of the safety of bank savings (the FDIC), the establishment of the Social Security Trust Fund, unemployment compensation and welfare entitlements. The New Deal projects built highways, dams and bridges, and put food on the table for millions, even though efficiency was sometimes sacrificed to sustain marginal job opportunities that paid wages. But many government-funded programs were spectacular winners. Projects and agencies like the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration constructed and brought electric power and lighting to small-town and rural America - something that private capital avoided doing because the profits would be slim.

Most importantly, FDR changed national despair into hope and, in so doing, earned the undying gratitude of most of his contemporaries. He was re-elected three times, always by landslide, and is remembered as the greatest of all presidents since Abraham Lincoln.

Boris Danik
North Caldwell, N.J.

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