FACES AND PLACES: The Ukrainian Weekly: a tie that binds (10/03/99)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

The Ukrainian Weekly: a tie that binds

As we contemplate the future of our community in North America, it is important that we consider those institutions that contribute to our common good as a people. These institutions are the ties that bind us, the social cement that provides our cohesion as an ethnic group.

Prior to the first world war, the Ukrainian Catholic Church was the one institution to which nationally conscious Ukrainians on this side of the Atlantic could best relate. The early leadership of the Catholic church in America, the so-called "American Circle" of priests, established our first parishes, our first fraternals, our first newspapers, our first schools, and our first reading rooms. It was they who defined who we were as a people, and it was they who taught us how to fight for the recognition that eventually came our way.

Today, our religious beliefs are more diverse. Ukrainian Catholics are no longer the only faith expression in town. Catholics are now divided between "old calendar" and "new calendar." The Ukrainian Orthodox established their church in 1924 with the arrival of Bishop John Theodorovich. They, too, are now divided, even more than Catholics. Today we have Baptists and Pentecostals among us as well.

There was a time when the only mutual benefit society in our community was the Ukrainian National Association. That changed in 1910 with the establishment of the Ukrainian Workingmen's (Fraternal) Association. A year later a third fraternal, the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics made its appearance. During the 1920s Ukrainians were bound together by a desire for an independent Ukraine. Ukrainian American Communists declared that the establishment of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic had fulfilled that desire. Ukrainian monarchists, the so-called "Hetmantsi," were fervent anti-Communists who exposed this myth, arguing that Ukraine was still ruled by Moscow. Today, neither the Communists nor the Hetmantsi are around.

During the 1930s, the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine, an affiliate of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, joined the anti-communist crusade, believing that only an armed struggle by dedicated cadres of Ukrainian patriots could establish a free Ukraine.

During the second world war the OUN split into three factions and the resultant discord found its way across the Atlantic. With the creation of an independent Ukrainian state, all factions of the OUN appear irrelevant.

In 1933 an effort was made to unite Ukrainian youth in the Ukrainian Youth League of North America (UYLNA). However, in the late 1940s/early 1950s three youth organizations, Plast, SUM and ODUM were established in this country.

There is nothing wrong with the religious, political, and youth diversity that now exists among Ukrainians in North America. On the contrary, variety makes for a more interesting community. In my opinion, however, there needs to be an institution that binds all of us, keeping us informed about Ukraine as well as Ukrainians in North America and offers, at the same time, a forum for free expression. In my opinion, that institution is The Ukrainian Weekly.

On October 6, The Ukrainian Weekly reaches its 66th birthday as an organ of the Ukrainian National Association. And what a 66 years it has been! Founded during the height of the Great Depression by the kind of visionaries who once headed the UNA, The Weekly has remained in the forefront of the Ukrainian freedom crusade providing information for Ukrainian Americans that was found nowhere else. Among other events, The Ukrainian Weekly reported on the Polish pacification of Ukrainian Galicia, the Great Famine and other Soviet crimes, the establishment of the Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine, the growing dissident movement in Ukraine, and, eventually, the birth of the new Ukrainian state.

Domestically, The Ukrainian Weekly focused on the younger generation. Articles on family life, sports, culture, political in-fighting, generational conflict, intermarriage, the language issue, the role of women in community life, Soviet-inspired defamation, and ethnonational preservation were and remain regular features of The Weekly along with various columns addressing issues of special interest to youth and elderly alike.

Today, as in the past, The Ukrainian Weekly plays a vital role in our community. Roman Woronowycz keeps us informed about events in Ukraine at a time when the Ukrainian government appears to be suppressing Ukraine's press. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that The Ukrainian Weekly remains one of a diminishing number of Ukrainian newspapers that is still able to function as an independent voice on Ukraine.

On these shores, The Ukrainian Weekly is also the only publication that is willing to take on controversial issues and to allow those who disagree free expression. The recent brouhaha among Orthodox believers and responses from the Jewish communities are examples of this kind of spirit.

As with all publications, subscribers are the life-blood of their existence. And, like all publications, The Ukrainian Weekly needs more subscribers. If you're a friend of The Weekly, you can help by doing one (or all) of three things: provide a complimentary subscription for an American (or Ukrainian) friend; donate to The Ukrainian Weekly Press Fund; or purchase a UNA life insurance policy, which will help the organization that subsidizes this publication.

If you want to know how important a free press is in a democracy, compare the ideas of Thomas Jefferson in 1787 and those of Vladimir I. Lenin in 1920. Jefferson wrote: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." Lenin, on the other hand, asked: "Why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?" Nothing better explains the differences between our way of thinking and that of past and present Ukrainian governments.

Yes, The Ukrainian Weekly is a tie that binds. If we lose it, trust me, there is nothing that can take its place.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

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