EDITORIAL: One part knowledge, two parts respect (02/14/99)

EDITORIAL

One part knowledge, two parts respect

At last October's The Year 2020 Conference, Dr. Bohdan Vitvitsky, the conference director, succinctly expressed the elements that will be necessary to keep our heritage and our community alive for the next generation: awareness, commitment and investment. It is what our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents gave us - it is what we owe our children.

So as we begin our new feature, a monthly section for our youth, it is also a thank you to our elders for their awareness, commitment and investment in us. And, as we offer this page as a Valentine of love to the next generation, we also offer it to those who came before us.

Our Ukrainian consciousness, that which is at the core of our awareness, takes many forms: some cannot imagine being Ukrainian without being surrounded by music and song, others immerse themselves in history. For many "being Ukrainian" is primarily social: the easy give and take of friendships, casual relationships, family ties. For others still, religion and spirituality lie at the core.

It is the challenge of this generation to sort out what is essential and what is peripheral to continuing our heritage.

And as an English-language publication unequivocally committed to the preservation of the Ukrainian heritage, let us share our secret with you: we believe that the essential ingredient to continuing one's heritage is not necessarily knowledge, but respect. One may know Ukrainian perfectly, but treat the language with disdain. We prefer that your children know the language less-perfectly, but treat it - as well as all the elements of their heritage - with respect.

This generation of parents will be raising their children in an environment about which their parents could only dream: an independent Ukraine. On one hand it's easier - whereas previous generations had to fight for the very concept of Ukraine, nowadays our children hear the U.S. president mention it almost matter-of-factly in his inaugural address. However, this situation also poses a unique challenge: how to get basically financially comfortable suburban children to respect not a romantic vision of a faraway land, as we did, but to respect a not-so-pretty reality.

To many who live in Ukraine, the history, experience and knowledge of the diaspora has no merit. Having been deluged for decades with Soviet propaganda, there is no small number that still consider us the enemy. But, as Dr. Vitvitsky also said, "our community, regardless of its failings, is a precious asset whose disintegration would be a tremendous loss to us, our descendants and to the land of our forefathers."

As a work in progress, our new page is open to ideas. We invite you, the parents of the next generation, to help us help you use this publication and its new feature to continue to preserve our precious asset.

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