LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (05/08/05)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

UCCLA seeks reconciliation

Dear Editor:

"Canadian government budget gives green light to redress for internment" (March 27): Christopher Guly is wrong in reporting that the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) asked the government of Canada for an apology for wrongs done to Ukrainians and other Europeans during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920. We have never made any such request.

Originally, we asked for official acknowledgment and redress, more recently changing that terminology to calls for recognition, restitution and reconciliation. Careful readers of The Ukrainian Weekly will know this, but it is very important that others not be misinformed about the nature, direction or intent of our efforts.

We also have a long way to go before any redress is forthcoming, although MP Inky Mark's stalwart championing of Bill C 331 - the Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act - makes it more likely that we will finally right this historic injustice, perhaps even while the last known survivor, Mary Manko, remains alive and able to bear witness to such a settlement.

Mr. Mark remains the best friend our community has in the House of Commons today and his private member's bill may even become law before this year's end.

Lubomyr Luciuk, Ph.D.
Kingston, Ontario

The letter-writer is director of research for the UCCLA.

Re: ethnicity and spirituality

Dear Editor:

It appears that Taras Szmagala Jr. is misinterpreting the meaning of "Ukrainian Catholic" and "Ukrainian Orthodox" by implying that such statements place ethnicity above spirituality ("Do we put our faith first?" April 3). They simply state that a person is a member of the Ukrainian Catholic (not Roman Catholic) Church or of the Ukrainian Orthodox (not some other Orthodox) Church.

Using his interpretation one may conclude that Pope John Paul II placed his ethnicity above religion when - in responding to a question by a Polish reporter during a visit to Poland about how he viewed the fact that he was a Pole - he said "first I am a son of the Polish nation and then the Pope to everybody." In fact, Pope John Paul II expressed his Polish patriotism on many occasions.

Why don't the members of the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church follow his example and say "first we are sons of the Ukrainian nation and then Catholic or Orthodox"?

When on August 20, 1989 - after the fall of communism in Poland - a mass was celebrated, it "was a political rally and no one saw any contradiction in that ... It is often said that in Poland the Church is as much a national institution as a religious one ..." wrote Matthew Kaminski in The Wall Street Journal on April 8.

Also, does it mean that the thousands of Poles who went to Rome for the Pope's funeral and, in their public expression of patriotism, waved Polish flags placed their ethnicity above their religion?

Z. Lew Melnyk, Ph.D.
Cincinnati, Ohio

Woloschuk's "selo" differs from reality

Dear Editor:

I am writing in response to a, well I'm not sure what it was, news article or self-promoting advertisement. "The good, the bad and the ugly" written by Peter Woloschuk (April 24).

It is clear that Mr. Woloschuk has significant issues with the Ukrainian "selo" at large. His disdain for the very people who sacrificed and built Ukrainian communities all over the United States is reprehensible. The use of the words "selo mentality," as Mr. Woloschuk refers to these good people, is quite interesting as I reflect back. Allow me a moment to place this in perspective.

I, as well as thousands of other children, was brought to the United States after the second world war to start a new life, the American way. It would have been much easier just to step into the "melting pot," change your last name and become a "Smith." We were called "DPs" (displaced persons), foreigners, told to "go back where you came from," labeled as Communist and so on. We were from the "selo," what did we know, and who did we know, and where did we go?

But here is the surprise, Mr. Woloschuk, we had heart, raw determination, pride in our culture and nationality, and set out to tell our new American friends who we were.

What the people of the selo saw was an opportunity this new land offered. Not only to become citizens of this great country but to establish and maintain, yes maintain, our Ukrainian roots, traditions and culture. The people of the selo did not think of themselves, rather of the community. We had no grandparents, uncles, aunts or cousins here in America, we relied on the community, and the community became our new family. Ukrainians we met at the displaced persons camps, Ukrainians who were on the military ship that brought us to America became our family. Mr. and Mrs. Stanchak, Mr. and Mrs. Wosny, Mr. and Mrs. Wasylyshyn, and so on, became our uncles and aunts, their children became our cousins. This was the new selo.

Now ask what the new selo accomplished, without knowing the language, without the so-called "city connections," without the big salary. They built the selo from scratch. First they purchased churches, and then built churches, established organizations such as Plast, SUM, Ukrainian school, dance groups. They created awareness with city and state officials. The selo was being recognized and respected. All of this was not easy, it was hard work; there were many disappointments, but the wins outnumbered the losses. Anything worthwhile takes effort, understanding and heart.

Mr. Woloschuk mentions that out of the 75,000 Ukrainians in Massachusetts that only 1,000 are active. Why doesn't Mr. Woloschuk ask how many churches the other 74,000 built? Moreover, let us ask Mr. Woloschuk how many churches he's built. He has the education, certainly the connections and the experience, but does he have heart?

The selo he sees and the one that is real are very different. It is ironic that Mr. Woloschuk mentions President Viktor Yushchenko's visit to Boston in the same document in which he displays contempt for the very same class of people who elected the president - the selo.

Evhen Muzyka
Waltham, Mass.

"Ugly" analysis of Boston visit

Dear Editor:

While I would normally not subject The Ukrainian Weekly readership to what amounts to a provincial spat, I feel compelled to respond to Peter T. Woloschuk's April 24, article "The good, the bad and the ugly: a look at the visit to Boston" regarding President Viktor Yushchenko's recent award ceremony at The Kennedy Library in Boston. Of his multipage article, no more than 15 percent was devoted to any substantive report on the event, while the balance merely served as a forum for his diatribe against Ukrainians in general and the Boston Ukrainian community in particular. Mr. Woloschuk managed to take umbrage with nearly every Ukrainian at the event, from Ukrainian government officials to local Ukrainian organizations and even our local Ukrainian Catholic priest and his family.

I will be the first to admit that some officials of the Ukrainian government have not always behaved in an exemplary manner. I also recognize that the Boston Ukrainian community, as presumably all Ukrainian communities throughout the United States, is not without fault. However, the "selo" mentality that Mr. Woloschuk ascribes to it in his article, is simply not justified.

Criticism is not necessarily bad, and often even good, so long as it is constructive and credible. In Mr. Woloschuk's article it was neither. He detailed what he perceived to be "the good, the bad and the ugly" in connection with the Kennedy Library event, with the "bad" and the "ugly" consisting of the Ukrainian government's and local community's participation there. As one who was present at the event, I concur with Mr. Woloschuk that the affair was wonderful on many levels. Kudos and everyone's gratitude are in order to the Kennedy Library Foundation, the trustees of the Kennedy Library and the entire Kennedy family for selecting President Yushchenko to receive the Profile in Courage Award, and organizing and sponsoring the ceremonies and reception that followed.

However, that was clearly not the salient purpose of Mr. Woloschuk's essay. What he calls the "good" items in his article are undeniable and self-evident. I praise the efforts of all involved. His "bad" and "ugly" descriptions of the event are wholly a different matter. For those who were not present at the ceremonies and read his critique, one could easily get the impression that the Ukrainian government officials were all incompetent, presumptuous, bureaucratic thugs, and that the members of the Boston Ukrainian community present at the event were an equally embarrassing collective of unruly village idiots. But, fortunately, that is merely the jaded perception of this "professor of Journalism and Communication," who perhaps saw only what he wanted to see and has his own axe to grind with the Boston Ukrainian community.

On the contrary, having read Mr. Woloschuk's article, I spoke with Ann Aaron, the Kennedy Library Director of the Profiles in Courage Award, who confirmed for me that "everyone was pleased with the community's interest and participation" in the event, and that she was not aware of any "problems with Ukrainian government officials." Clearly, her perceptions of the event did not fall within the rubrics of the "bad" and "ugly" as viewed by Mr. Woloschuk.

He would have you believe that it is "bad" that Ukrainian community leaders asked to have the president meet with local survivors of the Holodomor or that Ukrainian officials decided that there would be no welcoming ceremony at the airport. Mr. Woloschuk would further have you believe that it was "ugly" that the UCCA welcoming committee greeted President Yushchenko with an icon and korovai. He thought it was equally "ugly" that the Ukrainian National Women's League of America (Soyuz Ukrainok) took an interest in the Ukrainian burn victim Nastia Ovchar at Shriners' Hospital, which he erroneously claims was only after it was learned that the Kennedy family had an interest in the child. In fact, it was a local Soyuz Ukrainok member who brought the child's plight to the attention of the Kennedy family and has been following up since. I am at a loss to understand why it is so "ugly" for any person or any organization to help anyone in their time of need under any circumstances, regardless of how Mr. Woloschuk tries to spin it.

So what, in fact, is Mr. Woloschuk's agenda? He claims that due to "bad leadership" in the Ukrainian community in Boston the community has "continually lost or alienated people of talent and ability," resulting in inactivity in the Boston Ukrainian community. The truth of the matter is that Mr. Woloschuk himself is the poster child of his grievance. When one makes a conscious determination to have nothing to do with any of the established Ukrainian American organizations in the Boston area, be it UCCA, Ridna Shkola, the Ukrainian American Heritage Foundation, the Ukrainian Credit Union, Plast, SUM or even either of the Ukrainian churches in Boston, I am hard-pressed to take his criticism of community involvement with any degree of seriousness or credibility.

For criticism to be valid, the critic must be credible. Mr. Woloschuk is not. Self-promotion and self-aggrandizement do not help his cause. A scant five months ago, he dubbed himself president of an "ad hoc" organization, the Ukrainian Americans for Democracy in Ukraine - Boston, which only a handful of people heard of until his article appeared. The UADU is not a legal entity and as one of its own members admitted to me, has no defined purpose and only approximately 10 members.

Tag on the title of professor of communication and journalism at Boston College and Northeastern University, as he has done on this and other occasions, and you have just ginned up the Ukrainian Wizard of Oz. Pull back the curtain, however, and you find a part time instructor of advertising and mass media. Despite his claims, I have verified with Boston College and Northeastern University that he does not now, nor has he ever held the rank of professor of anything at either of these institutions. If Mr. Woloschuk teaches his students journalism the way he practices it, I believe refunds are in order.

Perhaps Mr. Woloschuk has done commendable work with the City of Boston, its Police Department and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, as he references in his printed credentials. However, I am not certain that this, together with his ignorance of the local Ukrainian community, gives him the imprimatur to dissect it as he did in his essay.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt as to what may have been his intent in writing his article, perhaps it was "good." However, his delivery and credibility are certainly both "bad" and "ugly." When one reads the venom that Mr. Woloschuk has spewed against so many of his fellow Ukrainians with what he perceives to be their selo mentality, I cannot help to think that perhaps he regrets being a Ukrainian American altogether, and would have preferred to be an Irish Roman Catholic - or better yet, a Kennedy.

Walter M. Lupan
Dover, Mass.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Peter T. Woloschuk is adjunct professor of communication at Boston College and adjunct professor of journalism at the School of Journalism of Northeastern University (Boston). He is also senior lecturer at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies at Northeastern University, adjunct professor of communication at UMass-Boston and adjunct professor of communication at Pine Manor College (Chestnut Hill, Mass.).

Was "dissection" really needed?

Dear Editor:

I read with great interest Mr. Woloschuk's article "The good, the bad and the ugly: a look at the visit to Boston" in The Ukrainian Weekly (April 24). My husband and I had the privilege of attending the presentation of the Profile in Courage award to President Viktor Yushchenko. I wonder why Mr. Woloschuk needs to dissect that very important day for the Ukrainian community, especially the behind-the-scene activities.

The arrangements at the Kennedy library between the library staff, the Boston Ukrainian community and President Yuschenko's staff were done with their best intentions in mind. Some shortcomings no doubt occurred, but as we all know they are normal for the course, to greater or lesser degree.

However, I can personally attest that this same community, at least since 1948, has shown compassion and care to children and immigrants, providing financial and moral support whenever and wherever possible. Let me only remind Mr. Woloshchuk that no community is perfect. It is regrettable that he chose the visit of President Yuschenko to vent his personal frustrations.

Irene Fedoriw Slabyj
Brewer, Maine

Review was full of vindictive views

Dear Editor:

Your decision to print Peter T. Woloschuk's tirade, "The good, the bad, and the ugly: a look at the visit to Boston," showed a regrettable lack of judgment on the part of a highly respected publication.

At best, the vindictive views expressed by Prof. Woloschuk's article belonged in a short letter to the editor, where they would not be mistaken for the professional journalism one expects from The Ukrainian Weekly.

In the future, please spare your readers such spiteful local diatribes, and do not encourage them by printing them in your newspaper.

Vera Trojan
Belmont, Mass.

UNWLA branch offers a response

Dear Editor:

It is deeply offensive to the members of the Boston branch of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America Inc., as well as to all Soyuz Ukrainok members worldwide, that its activities should merit an "ugly label" in Peter T. Woloschuk's "reflections" on President Viktor Yushchenko's visit to the Kennedy Library in Boston (April 24). It is equally disturbing that Mr. Woloschuk's accusations against the UNWLA branch must be publicly corrected in print. His need to tarnish their good reputation, as he has, only brings him back to that petty "selo" mentality of which he accuses the Ukrainian community.

The facts are that almost immediately after the arrival of Nastia Ovchar, the 5-year-old burn victim who came to Boston through President and Mrs. Viktor Yushchenko's efforts, a Boston Soyuz Ukrainok member visited the Ovchars and began to involve the entire Branch in March. Additionally, the national headquarters of UNWLA, Inc. requested branch support for the Ovchars, well in advance of President Yushchenko's visit. Are they equally "ugly"?

Moreover, had a UNWLA branch member not spent time during the past several weeks communicating with a particular Kennedy family member, that very influential Kennedy would not have known about Nastia Ovchar at all. Is that branch member also "ugly"?

Mr. Woloschuk's accusations of "emergency meetings" to appease Kennedy interest are wholly untrue and defamatory.

Yes, Mr. Woloschuk, there are numerous patients from Ukraine in need of assistance all over the U.S. Perhaps from your criticism of the UNWLA's efforts to help one, it should be inferred that there is no beginning to good deeds, so why bother, or risk criticism. Some may call that "ugly."

Someone should warn your journalism students and university department chairs that as a professor of journalism, you yourself, fail to consult primary sources to corroborate facts for your own personal diatribes. Moreover, with your stated list of credentials, you might have had the dignity to offer constructive assistance rather than destructive and "ugly" criticism of the Boston branch of Soyuz Ukrainok, as well as the entire the Boston Ukrainian community.

Nadia Annese
Winchester, Mass.

The letter-writer is president of UNWLA Branch 126. She has sent this letter on behalf of the branch's executive board.

Ukraine receives Jewish support

Dear Editor:

The ongoing discussion and debate about aspects of Ukrainian-Jewish relations - and especially Bohdan Vitvitsky's April 24 commentary about who has axes to grind against whom - prompts me to highlight some examples of positive features in the Ukrainian Jewish experience. I believe that this is necessary given the tendency by some Ukrainian Americans, whether on the pages of this newspaper or, much more often over the years, in private conversation, to focus excessively on the negative aspects of these relations and ignore or downplay the positive.

Whatever the wrongs - some real, others a matter of dispute - committed by some Jews against Ukrainians cited by Dr. Vitvitsky and others, there have been many important, positive features. These positives often are overlooked, promoting or reinforcing generalizations and negative stereotypes among some Ukrainian Americans that don't reflect the complete picture.

Over the last quarter-century, Jewish American governmental officials and members of Congress have been among those in the forefront of promoting human rights and democracy in Ukraine and supporting Ukraine's independence.

In the 1980s, Ambassador Max Kampelman, as head of the U.S. delegation to the 1980-1983 of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting - which then was virtually the only forum for U.S.-Soviet dialogue - raised the cases of Ukrainian political prisoners, at a time when raising individual cases was not the diplomatic norm. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Ambassador Richard Schifter, as assistant secretary of state for human rights, advocated on behalf of human rights in Ukraine, including the then-suppressed Ukrainian Catholic Church. Both ambassadors' fathers, incidentally, were born in Ukraine.

Among the strong proponents of Ukraine have been Jewish members of Congress. Former Rep. Don Ritter was a stalwart advocate of Ukrainian independence and champion of human rights as a Helsinki commissioner and chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Baltics and Ukraine in the 1980s and early 1990s. Rep. Benjamin Gilman, who served as a member of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine then as chairman of the House International Relations Committee from 1995 until 2001, was a consistent friend of Ukraine.

More recently, in 2003-2004, former Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell's resolution, which, for the first time in Congress explicitly referred to the 1932-1933 Ukrainian Famine as genocide, garnered 33 Senate co-sponsors, including an impressive 10 of the 11 Jewish Senate members - 91 percent.

Today, as in the past, many of the most active supporters of a democratic Ukraine in the U.S. Congress are Jewish. In the lead-up and during the Orange Revolution, Jewish American officials at the State Department played a key role in ensuring our government's support for Ukraine at this most critical, historic time.

I recall attending a national meeting of the influential Jewish organization NCSJ: Advocates for Jews in Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic States sometime in the mid-1990s. Board members were keenly advocating their membership to encourage congressional and U.S. governmental support for increased assistance to Ukraine. Afterwards, I recall thinking that this could have just as easily been a meeting of a national Ukrainian American organizations. Americans of Jewish background have also played an active role in American non-governmental organizations involved in promoting democracy in Ukraine.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but merely a few illustrations based largely on my own Helsinki Commission experience working with many of these individuals and organizations. Much more could be written about other positive examples of past, as well as current and growing Jewish support for Ukraine - both within and beyond its borders. It is to underscore a larger point: when examining the Ukrainian-Jewish experience, we should also recall, become more aware and build upon the many positive facets of this experience.

Orest Deychakiwsky
Washington

Kaniv museum needs Washington

Dear Editor:

Ukrainians who have had an opportunity to visit the monument and the Taras Shevchenko Museum on Chernecha Hora in Kaniv are familiar with the serenity and the sanctity of this spiritual Mecca of the Ukrainian people. According to Prof. Viktor Tarakhan, the long-time, dedicated member and tour guide of the museum, "Taras Shevchenko's resting place attracts yearly among its visitors a very large number of Ukrainians from all corners the world. Even during the deep winter, in snow-blown days, there is always some Ukrainian soul who manages to climb the steps of the steep hill to pay respects to his memory at the feet of the monument."

In a recent letter to me, Prof. Tarakhan turned with a request to the Ukrainian American community, and I cite his words verbatim:

"Presently the museum is undergoing restorations. It is projected that the work inside the museum will be completed by the end of the year. In the spring 2006 we are planning a new exposition. As you remember, in the vestibule of the museum there were sculptures (busts) of Mozart, Beethoven, Goethe, Burns and many other giants of the world's cultures. Ukrainians from America often would ask, at times in jest, and other times in earnest: 'Why doesn't your museum have a sculpture of George Washington?'

"And, indeed, how nicely such a sculpture would embellish the interior of the museum. For that reason, I am turning to the Ukrainian community in America if they could present the museum with such a sculpture. It is preferable, if possible, that it be from some kind of a known governmental institution. Because Shevchenko's words: 'When will we get our Washington with the new and a righteous law? The day will come... "are relevant today, and they will always be relevant, especially to Ukraine...'

Should any of our readers be in a position to help realize the above request, (bust approximately 1.5-2 feet high) please contact the Shevchenko Museum in Kaniv directly, or drop me a line, at karpinic@wilkes.edu and I will be happy to assist and keep the community informed about the progress of the project.

Dr. Volodymyr Karpinich
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and commentaries on a variety of topics of concern to the Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian communities. Opinions expressed by columnists, commentators and letter-writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of either The Weekly editorial staff or its publisher, the Ukrainian National Association.

Letters should be typed (double-spaced) and signed (anonymous letters are not published). Letters are accepted also via e-mail at staff@ukrweekly.com. The daytime phone number and address of the letter-writer must be given for verification purposes.

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