LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (07/05/98)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Thanks for reports on UNA convention

Dear Editor:

It was with great pleasure and interest that I read issues No. 22 and 23 (May 24 and 31) of The Ukrainian Weekly containing detailed reports on the 34th Convention of the Ukrainian National Association. These reports give readers who were not at the convention a complete picture of the proceedings.

The articles by Andrij Wynnyckyj not only provide information about everything that occurred during those very significant days for the UNA, but also provide analysis and convey the flavor of the discussions during the convention.

Thank you for this excellent journalistic work - the only such report published anywhere because, unfortunately, the Ukrainian-language press did not provide any details other than the names of the newly elected UNA leadership.

Olha Kuzmowycz
Babylon, N.Y.

A thank you to supporters

Dear Editor:

I would like all members of the Ukrainian National Association, convention delegates and officers to know that I had no intention of running for office at the 34th Convention in Toronto.

Thank you to all those who have written and telephoned me to express their sorrow that I am no longer a UNA advisor. I appreciate your comments.

In the meantime I would also like to thank my friend who gave me the one vote I received for advisor during the primary.

Anne Remick
Boston

Our organizations must do planning

Dear Editor:

Judging from the number of solicitations I continue to receive from various diaspora organizations, it appears that the concept of operating with knowledge of demographic and financial planning has been essentially ignored. The service of demographics provides basic information on human population: size, growth (if any), density, distribution and vital statistics. These statistics with regard to Ukrainian Americans have not been studied by the UNA or other diaspora organizations and therefore we continue to contribute to the support of museums, culture clubs and various civic and political organizations without regard to demographic realities.

This obviously includes the UNA, where membership is declining at an exponential rate. The UNA and other diaspora organizations have difficulty in admitting that it is time to downsize or shut down their respective operations because the operating funds are simply drying up. Will we ever face up to the reality?

The recently concluded Toronto convention of the UNA was surrealistic and bombastic at the same time. Delegates were brought to Toronto by air, housed and fed over five days, at an estimated cost of $500,000, and yet we are told that the only Ukrainian daily news publication in the Western world will have to be reduced to make ends meet. The reduction of the UNA estate's (Soyuzivka) operation to three months per year is a financial disaster, and it would be better to shut it down permanently and sell it, even at a loss, like the Jersey City building only last year.

The UNA was founded on a very patriotic and straightforward basis: get as many Ukrainian immigrants as possible in the United States to join this fraternal organization and keep them informed about each other and the problems facing them by means of the venerable newspaper Svoboda.

This was accomplished with a tremendous amount of work and sacrifice on the part of the UNA leadership. Yet the UNA never developed a plan for financial management for second- and third-generation members, who were searching for growth, like that offered by other money-managing organizations. The UNA has not developed a plan, and as the post-World War II generation started to withdraw from the active community life, the UNA management kept collecting premiums on miniscule policies and buying into ventures that were obvious losers like the Jersey City "skyscraper" and Soyuzivka.

It appears likely that by the year 2003 or sooner the number of Ukrainian-speaking readers of Svoboda will no longer be able to support this paper, even on a weekly basis, and perhaps, also, the now much more important Ukrainian Weekly.

The newest ploy to effect a fusion of three very sick Ukrainian fraternal organizations into one does not bode well. Putting three terminally sick patients in the same bed does not offer more hope for their recovery. In the mean time, the high-splurging ritual in Toronto provides a fitting setting for the last hurrah!

Michael O. Holowaty, D.Sc.
Crown Point, Ind.

Why do we dwell on tragedies?

Dear Editor:

The Weekly recently announced a new film documentary about Stalinist terror in the 1930s and 1940s in Ukraine. The film is expected to attract international attention. While any Ukraine-oriented production ought to meet Western standards and such mass-media entries are needed, aren't our film projects focused much too often on national disasters?

Has anyone counted the films about the assassinations, the Famine of 1933, world wars, Chornobyl, etc. lingering on screen for the last 15 years? We seem to dwell on tragedy and on observances of death anniversaries. Why not celebrate more birthdays as recently suggested by Svoboda's columnist O-KA? And we drag our clanging chains so professionally on film that such productions actually get more recognition worldwide than mainstream dramatic feature films.

The old adage still holds: good news is no news, so filmmakers seem to have come up with the Ukrainian version of Hollywood disaster movies. Won't someone do a quiet love story to balance things out a bit and return some warmth and brightness to our not-so-silvery screens?

Roman Sawycky
Cranford, N.J.

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