LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (09/20/98)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Our lawyers deserve thanks

Dear Editor:

The lawyers who have been working on the case relating to the CBS airing of its "60 Minutes" segment "The Ugly Face of Freedom" deserve a very hearty congratulations and the gratitude of the entire community in the U.S. and Canada. As I understand, the three people who were directly involved in the appellate court's ruling ordering the FCC to reconsider its dismissal of Alexander Serafyn's petition claiming distortion of the news as regards purported anti-Semitism in Ukraine were Arthur Belendiuk, Bohdanna Pochoday and Andrea Kochan.

In my many years of community activism, I have often heard various people say - on the occasion of one or another calamity affecting the Ukrainian community - "why doesn't someone do something?" Leaving aside for the moment the childish aspect of the expectation that "someone" (someone else, of course) should do "something," in the case of the "60 Minutes" matter, "someone" did do "something." Although the success attained is but one round in what has already been a long fight, and may well continue to be a long fight for justice, the "someones" who have brought the matter to this point had to contribute many unremunerated hours of effort, energy and work. Again, congratulations and thank you.

Lastly, if the appellate court's ruling results in an opportunity to conduct discovery to find out how and why "60 Minutes" came to create "The Ugly Face of Freedom," such discovery will obviously cost a lot of money. My family and I will be happy to contribute to support such an endeavor, and I hope that everyone else will too.

Bohdan Vitvitsky
Summit, N.J.

Museums preserve our nation's life

Dear Editor:

It was a pleasure to read Dr. Myron Kuropas' column "Coal and prairie: painting the past" in The Weekly (August 23). I suspect many readers of The Weekly know very little about Bervinchak, Shostak or even Kurelek.

After reading the last words of the above-mentioned article, the next sentence begs to be written. Indeed, where are we and our next generations going to learn about our diaspora's past, particularly, the past as documented via the fine arts?

In the United States there are quite a few private art collections that contain the best works of the above-mentioned great artists. Many of the owners of such art collections are planning to donate these works of Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian artists to The Ukrainian Museum in New York. However, they are waiting for the new building to be erected so that all these treasures can be displayed for the whole world to see.

Few things in the life of any nation contribute to education and pride in one's heritage more than museums. And in Dr. Kuropas' words: "If we learned more about our past, perhaps we could learn something that would sustain us in dealing with the present." I wholeheartedly agree.

Nadia Deychakiwsky
Brecksville, Ohio

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