EDITORIAL: Looking to 2020 - and beyond (09/20/98)

EDITORIAL

Looking to 2020 - and beyond

It's almost a year since The Washington Group's 1997 Leadership Conference, which, unlike previous conferences that focused on international affairs, U.S-Ukraine relations, developments in Ukraine, etc., attempted to peer into our Ukrainian American community. Its topic: "We Can Do Better: Expanding Horizons for Ukrainian Americans"; its focus: what's happening inside our Ukrainian American community and what we can learn from other ethnic groups' experiences. It was probably the first national conference in the United States in recent memory that focused on us here, that is, on Ukrainians in America.

It also marked the beginning of a new trend among our professionals - the generation that should be taking the lead in our community organizations - who are now examining how our community functions with an eye toward continuing its viability into the next century. Last year's TWG conference was just a start. At that conference it was announced that this October, in place of the usual Columbus Day weekend Leadership Conference, there would be a special conference in New Jersey on the theme "Will there be a Ukrainian community in North America in the year 2020 - and does it matter?"

As Dr. Bohdan Vitvitsky explained during one of the TWG conference panels, "Our parents were involuntary ethnics - they couldn't be anything else - but we have a choice: we can assimilate. We are voluntary ethnics." Thus, Dr. Vitvitsky's organization, the Ukrainian American Professionals and Businesspersons Association of New York and New Jersey, announced it would sponsor a conference devoted to that topic.

During the weekend of October 10-11 in East Hanover, N.J., "The Year 2020 Conference" will attempt to provide answers to essential questions such as: Does an independent Ukraine enrich and invigorate the diaspora, or undermine its raison d'être? Will the "Fourth Wave" of immigrants from Ukraine play a key role in the future of our community? Are the future of the Ukrainian Canadian and Ukrainian American communities connected, or will their paths diverge due to different circumstances? In addition, the gathering will offer a forum for the views of the younger generation (defined as those between the ages of 20 and 35) and the perspectives of the "mid-life generation."

As the panelists come from a variety of fields - including law, journalism, banking, music, sociology, psychology, history, theology and architecture - and are involved in Ukrainian community life in diverse capacities, the perspectives they will offer promise to be distinct. And, hopefully, the discussion they elicit will be stimulating and illuminating - beneficial to the community as a whole. The further hope is that the conference will attract diverse participants, too - people who will come with an open mind, ready to share their ideas with fellow Ukrainians and then take the valuable insights gained at the conference back home to share with fellow activists. In a perfect world, of course, they could then implement the ideas and suggestions presented and show that, indeed, we can do better and we will exist in the year 2020 and beyond.

We commend the UAPBA of New York/New Jersey for its initiative in sponsoring this conference as a manifestation of its profound concern about the future of our community. And we encourage community members to attend and to participate in the "The Year 2020 Conference." Dear Readers, we now stand at the threshold of the 21st century. Are we prepared to do what is needed to ensure our community's existence into that century?

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