LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (01/27/02)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Help needy children in Zhytomyr orphanage

Dear Editor:

The Budynok Dytyny orphanage in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, is seeking financial assistance. The orphanage has 125 beds for children ranging from newborns to 4-year-olds, but does not have the funds to provide additional beds for the abandoned children brought to the orphanage.

These children's cries for help have moved us to seek financial support for expanding our facility from generous people abroad.

If you can help, please send checks or money orders made out to Budynok Dytyny, account No. 29753-000, at: Self Reliance New York Federal Credit Union, 108 Second Ave., New York, NY 10003.

The address of Budynok Dytyny is: 8 Karabelna St., Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine.

Please help us help these needy children who are seeking refuge, care, love and new homes.

Dr. S.V. Ursulenko
Zhytomyr, Ukraine

The letter writer is the chief physician at Zhytomyr's Budynok Dytyny. This appeal was received in New York by Julian and Maria Baczynsky, who relayed it to The Ukrainian Weekly.

A thank-you note from UCCA and UNIS

Dear Editor:

As president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, I thank you for the great layout of the two-part interview in The Weekly issues of December 23 and 30, 2001. I have received many remarks and comments on the interview, thanks to your questions and experience in putting something like that together.

Secondly, regarding your "Year in Review 2001" issue, many thanks for mentioning the work of the UCCA in a brief, yet very effective way.

The Ukrainian Weekly should be proud of its many successes.

The UCCA and its Ukrainian National Information Service remain committed to informing the Ukrainian community about activities throughout the country, as well as in Washington. Rest assured that, in this 25th anniversary year of UNIS, we will be providing more information for your newspaper to better acquaint the community of the importance of remaining powerful, both nationally and in Washington.

Michael Sawkiw Jr.
Washington

March elections offer a chance for change

Dear Editor:

In a recent analytical article in The Ukrainian Weekly titled "The government-criminal alliance," Roman Kupchinsky highlights the criminal nature of political-economic establishments in the former USSR in general and in Ukraine in particular, and Michael Jula bemoans the "unparalleled moral debasement" of a formerly Soviet population. Ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Ukraine's eagerly awaited independence, Dr. Myron Kuropas wrote about "our Ukraine" and "their Ukraine," and the cultural divide between the two.

One can hardly blame the diaspora for uncritical and as it turns out, unjustified ecstasy. The independence of Ukraine was long in coming. The history of 300 years of oppression and unspeakable barbarism inflicted on the people of Ukraine by the Russian Empire does not have be recounted here - we all know it too well. Three hundred years of a heroic and uneven struggle for human dignity, and 300 years of blood and tears is a long time. And then came independence, in a seemingly easy and effortless manner. Ten years ago was the time for diaspora ecstasy and the celebration of a lifetime. And now we have a cold blast of reality.

The social, cultural, and political progress we all expected did not come with independence. The criminal state structure of the Soviet Union was replaced by the criminal structure of self-serving "political-economic" clans. Elections are rigged. Free flow of information is suppressed. Journalists are killed. Opposition leaders die in mysterious car accidents. Rare independent judgments by the courts are simply ignored by the state authorities. Western broadcasts (BBC, Deutsche Welle) are denied rebroadcast rights in Ukraine - not much different from the jamming the same radio stations and broadcasts experienced in the darkest hours of the Cold War by the Soviet authorities. The list goes on and on.

No, not much has changed in Ukraine for the better in the social sphere since independence. And things got much worse for the general population in the economic sphere.

After this bleak and pessimistic scenario, the question arises: Is there any hope for the people of Ukraine? I believe there is. The Ukrainian people are capable of great surprises. After the great surprise of the 20th century, when via the plebiscite on December 1, 1991, the people of Ukraine relegated the Soviet Union to the dustbin of history, they might surprise us all again in the 21st century with the results of parliamentary elections on March 31 of this year. They might finally clean the house of the remnants of a corrupt Communist elite that stili rules the country.

Ihor Lysyj
Austin, Texas

News from Ukraine is both good and bad

Dear Editor:

It would appear that Dr. Oleh Wolansky (December 30, 2001) would like The Weekly to report only the good news from Ukraine, or better yet, make it all good news.

Alas, that is not the case. Ukraine at this time is a mixed bag of developments and directions. I have been to Ukraine with the military eight times, and I have seen significant strides being made by the Russian language. The surprising element is the lack of response by the populace. Perhaps there is a significant silent majority. Maybe a reversal will take place.

Nevertheless, Dr. Wolansky is wrong about Dr. Myron Kuropas. If news from Ukraine is "gloomy," then say it. Let's not sugarcoat the news to make us feel better. We have enough of that with the dominant media.

Roman G. Golash
Palatine, Ill.

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