LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (05/15/05)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Ukraine needs study and lustration of past

Dear Editor:

Rightly disgusted with the excesses of Ukrainophobia that accompany the persecution of alleged Ukrainian war-criminals, Dr. Myron B. Kuropas in his column "Orange justice: Pora" (April 10) has urged that President Viktor Yushchenko set up an Official Commission of Inquiry into Soviet War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Ukraine, which would then try to bring to justice Soviet perpetrators in Ukraine and in foreign countries.

To which Dr. Yuri A. Deychakiwsky replied that Ukraine doesn't need an "OSI analogue" because "President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko have many more immediate issues 'on their plate.'" In essence, Dr. Deychakiwsky suggests concentrating on educational activities and turning the other cheek on Soviet criminals (May 1).

Given the premise that genocide was committed against the Ukrainian nation in 1932-1933 and that the losses have been stupendous (for instance, in his eloquent address to the joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, President Yushchenko said, "The Holodomor Famine...took away 20 million lives of Ukrainians") turning the other cheek might be a noble, but not a wise thing to do. Permit me to suggest an intermediate solution.

Dr. Deychakiwsky is right about the tremendous time pressure on the Yushchenko administration. On the other hand, witnesses of the Famine-Genocide are rapidly dying out, and written documents in Ukraine have a way of disappearing. For those two reasons I would suggest two parallel approaches. President Yushchenko should continue the efforts to build a public Holodomor and genocide museum and research center in downtown Kyiv, not somewhere out on the Dnipro. This idea is acceptable to Dr. Deychakiwsky.

Secondly, and even more urgently, there should be established a part-scholarly, part-political, but above all, very secure Institute for the Study of Soviet War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity (or, Genocide) in Ukraine, which will be given a monopoly for access to sensitive Soviet records, including, in particular, documents of the Cheka-GPU-NKVD-MGB-KGB from 1917 until August 23, 1991. Such institutes have been set up in Germany and in Poland. The records would be useful for possible prosecution of remaining Soviet perpetrators, which would please Dr. Kuropas and others. In addition, they would be even more important for the "lustration," or vetting, of Ukrainian politicians and government officials.

Yaroslav Bilinsky
Newark, Del.

The letter-writer is professor emeritus, University of Delaware.

We must tell the story of Communist crimes

Dear Editor:

Dr. Yuri A. Deychakiwsky in his May 1 letter "Ukraine doesn't need an OSI analogue" says that if Ukraine goes on a hunt for Communist war criminals, "[o]ne could never hunt down and find all those who were guilty; many might already be dead anyway."

If I were a communist war criminal living comfortably in Brighton Beach, N.Y., or in Kyiv, I'd nod my head and say yes, let the past go, don't ask questions. I'd further say I look forward to Steven Spielberg's coming Hollywood movie on World War II Ukraine, in development since the 1990s with Leonid Kuchma's billionaire oligarch son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk. In that movie, there will be plenty of "understanding," "bridge building," true history and love for Ukrainians.

I'm 49, and between 1986 and 1994, published a hundred letters and op-eds in newspapers on the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI), and I know a little about how it continues to this day to railroad and ruin elderly East European émigrés accused of low-level Nazi collaboration, all the while refusing to go after Jewish collaborators (with one fluke exception).

We can't blame the Communists or Kuchma-Pinchuk from holding us back today for the Ukrainian war archives, or worry about Soviet threats against Ukrainian families setting the record straight.

By all means, create a genocide authority on the sufferings of Ukrainians, with museums, traveling lecturers, textbooks, films and TV shows. Let us also see movies on criminal oligarchs and mobsters who are selling more than 100,000 Ukrainian women and little girls into sex slavery abroad.

We Ukrainians cannot let the moment slip away; we have the intellectuals and money to capture the Communist war criminal story for the world to see. It would be like throwing away a good history book, a sin to not record the crimes against Ukrainians.

Peter B. Hrycenko
Allentown, Pa.

Consulate's response to Woloschuk article

Dear Editor:

The April 24 article called "The good, the bad and the ugly ..." made us appeal to those of you mentioned in the article as "bad and the ugly."

To tell you the truth, we were indignant with the information presented by the author of the article, and our first desire was to disprove, step by step, every and each critical remark stated in the article, starting with the fact that we did not need (and did not have) any "go-betweeners" in our communication with the Kennedy Library Foundation, Boston Shriners' Hospital or Ukrainian community members, most of whom we have the honor to know or be their friends.

But then we thought: Let's not waste our time. The work we are doing together is our advocate.

The weeks before the arrival of the Ukrainian delegation headed by President Viktor Yushchenko to Boston kept us all busy and excited at the same time. We were honored to meet the leaders of the Orange Revolution, our country's leaders. All of us did a great job while preparing for this visit. We also knew that it was a big responsibility of ours.

That very day, April 5, we were busy also: the members of the official delegation headed by President Yushchenko were doing their job - strengthening relations with our strategic partner, the United States; the members of President Yushchenko's staff and we, as Ukrainian consular officers, were doing our job in providing all the necessary arrangements. Askold Lozynskyj was following protocol and, as the Ukrainian World Congress president, was among the first to greet President Yushchenko; the members of the Ukrainian American community were doing their very important job - welcoming the Ukrainian president and letting their leader know that they are proud of his courage.

The Consulate General of Ukraine also expresses its deep appreciation to the Ukrainian National Women's League of America and to its president, Iryna Kurowyckyj, for providing its account to transfer money provided by the Ukrainians of the U.S.A. for 5-year old Nastia Ovchar.

We did not have time to hunt down other people's errors or to listen to somebody's private conversations (a security guard's, for example). Instead we were doing our job, together.

Esteemed friends, we thank you all for your assistance and your participation. We are confident that on April 5 all of you observed that the faces of the people at the JFK Library showed nothing short of amazement. This apart from the work we do, must be one more advocate of ours.

Dear colleagues, the most important thing is that you have been working for the sake of Ukraine for many years. Everybody in Ukraine also and we also appreciate everything you've done for our country.

Still, we have a lot of work to do.

"Let's not pay attention to those who are just envious of our success. Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass ..." ("Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri).

Serhii Pohoreltsev
New York

The letter-writer is Ukraine's consul general in New York.

UNWLA comments for the record

Dear Editor:

In an article that appeared in The Ukrainian Weekly on April 24, Prof. Peter T. Woloschuk did a tremendous injustice to the Ukrainian National Women's League of America. In the part of the article called "The ugly," he insinuates that our organization stuck its nose into something that did not concern us, besides other derogatory remarks.

The UNWLA came to little Nastia Ovchar's assistance at the request of the Embassy of Ukraine to the U.S.A. We received a telephone call followed up with an e-mail to assist the family in need. The e-mail from the Embassy of Ukraine is dated March 24, and that is when our interest started, not on the day of the visit of President Yushchenko to Boston. Upon hearing from the Ukrainian Embassy I contacted the Boston branch of the UNWLA and instructed them to immediately provide any assistance necessary to the family.

Apparently the good professor is not familiar with the work of Soyuz Ukrainok Ameryky and our accomplishments over the last 80 years. If he was he would think twice before spewing his trash. As for helping others, I would be delighted to send him information concerning our help to needy Ukrainians in Brazil, Poland, the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine.

I feel Prof. Woloschuk owes us an apology.

Iryna Kurowyckyj
New York

The letter-writer is president of the UNWLA.

Other communities also face problems

Dear Editor:

I read with interest the article on Boston's Ukrainian community by Prof. Peter T. Woloschuk. My comments have to do with Ukrainian communities all over the United States, of which Boston is only one.

My grandparents, on both sides, were Ukrainian immigrants. My parents were born in New York and Massachusetts. All were married at the old St. George's. My maternal grandmother, Barbara Gruchowsky, was one of the early members of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America. I loved everything Ukrainian, and at age 3 danced with Walter Bacad's dance troupe in New York City.

In 1959 we moved to Lexington, Mass., and began attending the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jamaica Plain. My father, John, was on the building committee and helped build the church that now exists there.

There were some problems. My parents changed their name from Wasylyshyn to Wylder. They also chose not to speak Ukrainian at home - but rather to raise American Ukrainian children. We lived in the suburbs, not the city.

As a result, my brother and I never learned to speak Ukrainian. We went to Soyuzivka. I chose to hang out with the Ukrainian teenagers in Boston, my brother did not. Eventually, through the Harvard students club - I met and married my Ukrainian husband, Zachary Wochok (also a third-generation Ukrainian American) who does speak Ukrainian. Our four adult children do not speak Ukrainian. We attend St. Andrew's Ukrainian Mission in Sacramento, Calif. My children know they are American Ukrainian.

On a regular Sunday we have less than 60 people at our church in a city with hundreds of thousands of new Ukrainian immigrants. Most go to other churches, or not at all. The church site is on loan from the Diocese of Sacramento. We do have the Ukrainian Club of Northern California for cultural issues - but our church struggles to exist.

Being an American first, then a Ukrainian, has not been easy. I have been snubbed many times over the years. There were clubs that I could not join, when in reality I'm more Ukrainian than many.

The lack of coordination of committees in Boston appears in all Ukrainian communities. Whether it is the churches (Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, etc.) or which immigrant wave people came in, there are too many cliques for the good and growth of a dynamic community.

Boston is not the only community to be plagued with organizational factions. The "intelligentsia" - of which the professor apparently is one - looks down on the parishioners who keep the churches clean and open.

In Boston, it's Harvard; New York has Columbia; San Francisco has Stamford. There are Ukrainians who are alumni of all of these universities and more - yet, they do not attend our tiny churches or send their money to keep our doors open.

Many have married outside the Ukrainian community, but many do not find the church-goers of the same class - or culture. I know this for a fact - as I am American, Ukrainian, educated, a church worker and a church-goer.

The Ukrainian communities in all cities big and small need to find the "Orange" in their localities to bring them together to support the best of the Ukrainian community in the United States and Ukraine.

Barbara Wylder Wochok
Davis, Calif.

Defending Boston's Ukrainian community

Dear Editor:

I would like to respond to the article by Peter Woloshchuk published in The Ukrainian Weekly on April 24. As a pastor of the Ukrainian Catholic church in Boston, I am compelled to defend the community I serve and my own family from such unjust remarks.

The truth: The visit of President Viktor Yushchenko to Boston on April 5, during which he received the Profile in Courage Award at the Kennedy Library was a great success. It was a very memorable and exciting day for all of us fellow Ukranian Americans who took time off from work and school, brought their parents, grandparents (some even in wheelchairs) and children to greet and welcome the true people's president Yushchenko.

The half-truth: As dean of Boston of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Stamford Eparchy, I had the great privilege and honor to be a part of the welcoming group, which also included the Very Rev. Mitred Roman Tarnawsky, pastor of St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Boston, and three girls from our Ukrainian community; Oksana Hoshowsky, Natalka Hoshowsky and my daughter Marta Nalysnyk. The girls, dressed in Ukrainian national costumes, welcomed President Yushchenko with the traditional korovai, while I presented an icon of the Mother of God. Neither my wife nor my son were part of the welcoming group and none of us were ever informed that it was even discussed. If such a discussion ever took place, I am curious as to how Mr. Woloshchuk managed to learn about all of this when he did not attend a single committee meeting?

The lie: Mr. Woloshchuk stated in his article that the Ukrainian National Women's League of America of Boston "suddenly decided to take an interest in Nastia Ovchar - after they learned of the Kennedy family interest." Members of the Boston branch of Soyuz Ukrainok and both Ukranian parishes, Christ the King UCC and St. Andrew UOC visited Nastia almost immediately upon her arrival at Shriners' Hospital and assisted her mother, Olia Ovchar, in any way she needed providing financial and moral support. This was two weeks prior to President Yushchenko's visit to Boston during which the Kennedy family learned about Nastia's story. Our Ukranian community in Boston, including Soyuz Ukrainok, has a long history of helping families whose children receive follow-up treatment at not only Shriners but many other medical facilities around Boston, by providing room, board and financial support. Mr. Woloshchuk's unfair criticism of those who, out of compassion, sincerely offer help to those in need shows his lack of involvement in the everyday life of our Ukrainian community.

Mr. Woloshchuk owes an official public apology to the Ukrainian community of Boston for the inappropriate and disrespectful remarks made in his article. Our Christian faith teaches us "To err is human and to forgive is divine." The "selo," which Mr. Woloschuk tries to correct on how to behave in public, is ready to forgive, if he has the simple human decency to apologize.

Father Yaroslav Nalysnyk
Boston

Peter Woloschuk responds to critics

Dear Editor:

Having read a number of responses last week to my article in The Weekly, "The good, the bad, and the ugly" (April 24), I can only say that most of them including those written by Messrs. Walter Lupan and Evhen Muzyka as well as Ms. Nadia Annese and Ms. Vera Trojan opted to take the easy way out and shoot the messenger rather than attempt to deal with the message.

I'm grateful that I live in the United States which has enshrined the idea of freedom of speech in the Constitution. Based on the reaction, at least of the writers that I have mentioned, I get the funny feeling that if they had their way, I'd be in the first cattle car heading for Siberia.

At the outset, let me say that I stand by the comments that I made.

As someone who has been involved in the planning of large-scale public events on a regular basis for more than 20 years and who is accustomed to doing "post mortems" as a learning tool for the future, I honestly believe that the time has come for the Ukrainian community in Boston, and elsewhere, to take a long, hard look at itself, what it is, what its purpose is, the way that it presents itself, and the way that it reaches out to the broader community with its special events.

There were major problems with the planning and execution of President Viktor Yushchenko's visit to Boston. The last-minute cancellation of his speech at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the rescheduling of his arrival at the Kennedy Library after 2,000 invitations had been mailed out are but two obvious examples. As I mentioned in my article, if it were not for the efforts of an ad hoc group of volunteers, the award ceremony would not have happened, or if it did, would not have been open to the broader Ukrainian American community in the greater Boston area.

It is my understanding that there were similar problems with the Yushchenko visit in both Washington and Chicago, and that New York City had particular difficulties. There was not a single press conference or media opportunity in any of the cities, media information and outreach were lacking, planning was belabored and often at cross purposes, and events and times were changed almost at whim.

As I said in my article, the Yushchenko visit was a success, but it seemed to happen in spite of - rather than as a result of - the efforts that were put into it.

I choose not to answer all of the points made in response to my article. Most of them are unworthy even of the people who penned them and several are simply boorish. The fact that these writers felt a need to defend the "official" Ukrainian institutions (whatever they are) and "official" community leaders and apparently don't understand the meaning of the term "ad hoc" clearly illustrates the reason why 74,000 out of the 75,000 Ukrainian Americans living in the greater Boston area want nothing to do with them.

I would like to point out, however, that Mr. Lupan's petulant and pedantic approach was beyond the pale. He admits to calling the Kennedy Library and he also went out of his way to check my employment status. Let me, first of all, point out that the introduction to my article was pretty clear as to what I do and from the description given that I am an adjunct professor. Let me also point out that the person Mr. Lupan sought information from at the Kennedy Library was on vacation for the two weeks prior to the Yushchenko visit and was not directly involved in the planning, and that I doubt that she would have responded to Mr. Lupan's hectoring by giving out any type of information anyway. I can only hope that Mr. Lupan is a better lawyer than he is investigator.

As for Soyuz Ukrainok, the article attempted to address only the issues around their local branch's recent activity with the Boston visit. I am aware of the good work that Soyuz Ukrainok does generally, particularly its aid to various Ukrainian communities in South America. However, as far as I know, and I could be mistaken, the Boston branch has never before reached out to help someone in a local hospital in the way that it has now. In the article, I was specifically referring to the fact that a member of the local organization attempted to use the plight of a badly injured little girl and a worthy fund-raising effort to apparently develop a personal connection with a member of the Kennedy family. As I wrote, I believe that there are many people from Ukraine with medical conditions who have needed our support and have not gotten it. We as a community should be able to provide for them as well.

However, the main theme of my article was that the event wound up being hugely successful and there were many tremendous moments. In looking back though, it is fair to reflect on what worked, what didn't, and lessons learned.

One lesson is that the official representatives of the Ukrainian government and of the Ukrainian American community need to increase their level of professionalism if Ukraine and/or the Ukrainian cause are to be taken seriously and presented in a favorable light.

I also believe that these individuals need to think outside the confines of their own little "hromady" if we are ever to get a well-crafted message out to a broader constituency. It is clear that with the changes in Ukraine such opportunities now exist. They must not be wasted.

Finally, I wrote my piece with the hope of stimulating some thought, some honest discussion, and some change. To paraphrase an old maxim: Unless we are willing to learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat its mistakes.

Peter T. Woloschuk
Boston

Ethnicity and faith cannot be separated

Dear Editor:

Let me add to Ihor Lysyj's "Our ethnicity and our faith," (letter, April 17), in response to the April 3 column Taras Szmagala Jr., "Should we put our faith first?" I presume that Christianity is the faith of Taras Szmagala. In Christianity's Holy Scriptures, Matthew 25:31-46, we see that on judgment day, "shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: ..." Am I wrong in understanding that one cannot separate one's ethnicity from one's faith? If so, how can one put one's faith first, or conversely, put one's ethnicity first?

The question then becomes with which nation will we as individuals stand? With the Romans from Rome? With the Byzantines from Byzantium? With the Muscovites from Moscow? Or, when being among their flocks of sheep, will we stand out like goats?

A favorite saying by His Beatitude Ilarion, former long-time metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, now deceased (may he rest in peace.), was, "To serve God is to serve people." For those of us of Ukrainian ancestry, living in the United States or in Canada, who are our people?

As Americans or as Canadians, we are obligated to serve our fellow American and Canadian citizens, respectively. But also, we should not forget, Matthew 15:4, "Honor your father and mother." Am I wrong to expand this commandment of God to include all of our ancestors? If I am right, then we have an obligation also to the people of Ukraine, where our ancestors lived.

Our loyalties, therefore, must be joint and hyphenated. That makes us Ukrainian ethnics in the United States and in Canada. Our people, then, are Ukrainian Americans or Ukrainian Canadians. Consequently, it is with these people, respectively, that we should stand when we serve people, our fellow citizens as well as the people of our ancestral homeland, Ukraine.

Stan Humenuk
Calgary, Alberta

About the Yalta event at Ukrainian Institute

Dear Editor:

Askold Lozynskyj's letter about the Yalta conference was interesting, genuine and represented popular opinion. Had he attended the conference, he would have enjoyed to hear that three out of the four speakers shared his views. Only one, the representative of the Roosevelt Foundation, tried to defend the results of the conference and its consequences.

This brings up another point. Should this conference have taken place at the Ukrainian Institute of America? An influential and prestigious American institution, the Roosevelt Foundation invited the UIA to co-sponsor the conference and exhibit about this historic event at our location because Yalta is in Ukraine. The prevailing opinion of our members was that cooperation with this great American institution could not only be beneficial to the institute but also to the Ukrainian cause as well. By the way, the conference was probably attended by more American intellectuals and politicians than any other Ukrainian affair.

The other point may be strictkly journalistic. It is unusual to publish readers' letters with editorial endorsement. Highlighting the reader's letter with quotes from the letter is usually reserved for articles not letters. In this case it sounds like the editors' endorsement, which is contrary to your basic policy of impartiality.

Andrij Paschuk
New York

EDITOR'S NOTE: Publishing a letter to the editor or highlighting letter-writer's opinion in the headline over his/her letter does not in any way constitute editorial endorsement.

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typed (double-spaced) and signed; they must be originals, not photocopies. 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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