LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (06/11/00)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

My advice to Weekly: keep Myron Kuropas

Dear Editor:

I consider myself a friend of Dr. Myron Kuropas. That said I will also, gleefully, admit that I don't always agree with the positions he has taken in his column. But I always read it, first. And I would not subscribe to The Weekly if Dr. Kuropas was liquidated at the behest of the commissars of correctness who have been writing in of late, calling for his head.

I have to wonder why these critics don't pen their own commentaries for consideration. But then, as I well know from experience, crafting a essay isn't nearly as easy as penning a nasty letter. And taking a public stand, often on controversial subjects, does have its repercussions, wanna-be censors being in plentiful supply, as recently evidenced in your letters section.

Here's my advice: keep Dr. Kuropas. He's the right wing. Since it's rare to get a good laugh out of reading anything in any Ukrainian newspaper please also publish the whiners of the wrong wing. After all, The Weekly can't afford a funnies section.

Lubomyr Luciuk, Ph.D.
Kingston, Ontario

Political correctness and our community

Dear Editor:

This is a response to letter to the editor (May 21) where a complaint is made about supposedly politically incorrect weekly columns by Dr. Myron Kuropas. The Ukrainian Weekly is the voice of the Ukrainian community in the United States and Canada, and not a publication somewhat resembling the well-known Village Voice, known as a champion of liberal-left opinions and causes. Therefore, the columns of Dr. Kuropas should be taken in this sense.

We want to believe, that The Weekly represents, reasonably well, the views of Ukrainian Americans of today, concerned mainly with the contemporary topics of interest to Ukrainians living in America. Primarily, it is to generate and to support in the American public opinion the attitude that Ukrainian Americans deserve to be treated as a politically responsible, hard-working and community-oriented ethnic group. Therefore, Ukrainian Americans deserve to be taken seriously, and treated with respect by the American (and, also, Canadian) authorities.

In this respect, The Weekly should strive that at critical stages in world history a "Chicken Kiev" - type incident does not happen again. Dr. Kuropas columns may be very helpful in this respect - to educate the American public to be more Ukrainian-friendly, without necessarily pushing through various controversial, but today politically correct social agendas.

The Ukrainian American community is not much involved in issues like women serving on submarines or the use of the Confederate flag in South Carolina, but has an interest in the saga of Elian Gonzales, in view of the similarity of his story to that of a Ukrainian boy, Walter Polovchak, some time ago.

Peter Hrycak
Cranford, N.J.

A sincere thank-you for author's introduction

Dear Editor:

Thank you for introducing author Irene Zabytko to your readers in The Ukrainian Weekly of April 23. I immediately rushed to the nearest Barnes and Nobles bookstore for my copy of her book "The Sky Unwashed" and read it in one breath (well, almost).

Ms. Zabytko is a wonderful storyteller, and she treats the characters and their tragic lives after Chornobyl with great sensitivity and wisdom, understanding their human frailties and finding their hidden inner strengths,

Now it is up to us, the readers, to make her book a bestseller. So, dear readers of The Ukrainian Weekly, spread the word among your friends and encourage everyone you encounter to buy "The Sky Unwashed." (Don't lend it to them, have them purchase their own copy!)

The success of Ms. Zabytko's novel will be our success, too, and a fitting memorial to those "babusi" - the grandmothers who keep the faith and the traditions for Ukraine.

Thank you Ms. Zabytko!

Daria Horodysky
Richfield, Ohio

About free speech and contrary opinions

Dear Editor:

The recent assault on Dr. Myron Kuropas (May 21) is a common left-wing method to berate people who don't follow their ideas. Their approach: We don't agree with him, get rid of the rascal - never mind freedom of speech and First Amendment.

The latest victim of such thinking is Bob Zelnick, a longtime former ABC News correspondent who got fired for writing an authoritative biography of Al Gores. Would it not be more democratic if Roman Cybriwsky, instead of questioning Dr. Kuropas "fitness for the job," would sit down and write an article presenting his contrary opinion?

Zenon B. Sheparovych, Ed. D.
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

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