LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (09/10/00)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Ukrainians should save their heritage

Dear Editor:

I have been a reader of The Ukrainian Weekly since I was in my teens. Many years have gone by and I have remained silent without writing a letter to this paper to express my opinion on issues. Now I believe it is time for me to speak out.

I am a man of Ukrainian heritage, with a Ukrainian mother who was born after the war in one of Germany's displaced persons camps. My mother's family, which was taken by the Nazis to Germany as slave laborers, were unable to return to Ukraine because they knew what would happen to them under Stalin's Soviet regime: they would have either been killed or exiled to Siberia. My family came to America because it opened its arms to them and millions of others. But my family never forgot Mother Ukraine, which make no mistake about it, was captive to Communist Russia.

It was to my family's great joy that nine years ago Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union. I, and I'm sure many others, thought this dramatic action would serve as the impetus needed for a massive revival of the Ukrainian language and our nation's wonderful heritage. Although there have been some positive strides in that direction, unfortunately the Ukrainian language and its culture continues to be threatened by a strong Russification effort on the part of Ukraine's Russian minority, and, to nobody's surprise, the Russian government.

News reports indicate that the Russian government is protesting Ukraine's move to make sure Ukrainian is a dominant language. This is quite ludicrous. If Ukraine is an independent and sovereign nation made up of mostly Ukrainian people, naturally Ukrainian would be the dominant language. Ukraine does not protest Russia's imposition of Russian as the dominant language of its population, which, by the way, is composed of many hundreds of groups of non-Russians. Ukraine does not interfere in Russian affairs, and I steadfastly maintain that Russia should stop interfering in the affairs of Ukraine.

Let us pause and think about the state of our Ukrainian language. My family came from Volyn and spoke a very pure form of Ukrainian, meaning it was not very influenced by Russian. To my disappointment, recent Ukrainian immigrants to America speak a Russified form of Ukrainian to the point that sometimes I do not understand everything they say. Then I realized why that was the case. Ukrainian has more Russian words in it now than ever before. This is a travesty! Not only is our Ukrainian language not being spoken as much as it should be in Ukraine, but the Ukrainian that is spoken is not as pure as it should be. This sad and scary trend needs to be stopped now before it is too late.

I support the Ukrainian government in its initiatives to make Ukrainian the dominant language of Ukraine and its people. I ask President Leonid Kuchma and the Verkhovna Rada to continue pushing Ukrainian to the forefront and not give in to the demands of the Russian government. To give in would amount to betrayal of the Ukrainian people. It is honorable that Ukraine has tolerated the speaking of the Russian language for all these years, especially in light of the fact that for many years the Russians tried to destroy our language and our people. Millions of Ukrainians were exterminated by the Russians and their government which was forced on Ukraine. Now that Ukraine is finally free, it is incumbent upon the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people to make it clear to the Russian minority in Ukraine that no matter what they think, they are Ukrainian by citizenship.

Nobody forced Russians and Russian speakers or their ancestors to move to Ukraine. I have never heard of anyone being exiled to Ukraine. In my opinion, those who are Russocentric and believe Russian should be the dominant language should simply go to Russia where they can speak it to their hearts' content. It should also be noted that Russia does not promote or support the Ukrainian language in any shape or form, but it expects Ukraine to promote and support the Russian language.

Ukrainians must continue to unite to save our precious heritage. It is vital to do so now before it is too late. I thank The Ukrainian Weekly for providing this forum to allow the free expression of opinions. This paper certainly has and will continue to be an instrument of positive change for our people.

Kye E. Parsons
Delmar, Md.

Gore-Lieberman deserve support

Dear Editor:

Ukraine's continued independence is one of America's most critical foreign policy issues. Because Ukraine's independence guarantees that Russia will not revert to its imperial past, the world is more secure. That's why the choice in this year's election is so important to everyone - not only Ukrainian Americans.

Since he took office, Vice-President Al Gore has been a strong supporter of Ukraine's efforts to remain independent and achieve prosperity. In recognition of his work on behalf of Ukraine, the Joint Conferences of Ukrainian American Organizations last year gave Mr. Gore its first and only "Friend of Ukraine" award.

Gov. George Bush, by contrast, has virtually no knowledge of foreign policy and instead promises to rely on the team that advised his father to try to save the Soviet Union by opposing Ukrainian independence.

Because Sen. Joe Lieberman, Mr. Gore's running mate, is Jewish, Ukrainian Americans have an historic opportunity. First as senator, Mr. Lieberman consistently supported Ukraine - both before and since it achieved its independence. With him on the ticket, Ukrainians will be able to work on the basis of common interest with Jews who also support Gore-Lieberman, not only because many American Jews trace their origins to Ukraine and supported it in the past, but also because of other issues, such as gun control, education, the environment, Medicare and Social Security. It all starts with a sound economy which in the past eight years has gone from $300 billion deficits to budget surpluses, from high interest rates and unemployment to historic levels of prosperity.

Based on the respective records and qualifications of the two tickets, the 2000 election offers Ukrainian Americans an obvious choice. I hope our community seizes this historic opportunity and supports Gore-Lieberman in November.

Andrew Ripeckyj, M.D.
Chicago

UCC must be present at dialogue

Dear Editor:

The Ukrainian Weekly carried two articles on the recent Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, reflective of numerous such articles that appeared in the Latin Rite Catholic and Orthodox press. Two major points were raised in various articles, describing the peculiar situation of Eastern Catholic Churches in this dialogue. The Orthodox and Latin Rite Catholics met to talk about the Eastern Catholic Churches - without the presence of Eastern Catholic representatives. Obviously, there can never be a solution if the major partner is talked about and not to. This was very cogently presented by Bishop Basil Losten in the July 16 issue.

Then in the July 30 issue, the article on this subject quoted the Orthodox Archbishop Stylanios as asking how it is possible for these Churches, cut off from Orthodox Eastern Churches, "to retain the language and rituals of their mother Churches and yet still profess papal primacy and infalliblity, which run counter to the Orthodox faith?" Eastern Rite Catholics consider the undivided Church of 1054 as the "mother" Church to which they returned, the undivided Apostolic Church. They retained their Eastern customs and traditions, thus they became Catholic in spirit and Eastern in ritual.

It seems that all this and more cannot be explained by Latin Rite and Eastern Orthodox prelates, but by the Eastern Rite Catholics themselves. Perhaps it is time for our Ukrainian Catholic hierarchs, as heads of the large Eastern Rite Catholic Church, to make their presence an indispensable factor in these "dialogues."

Larissa M. Fontana
Potomac, Md.

Lviv Procuracy oversteps authority

Dear Editor:

In The Ukrainian Weekly Newsbriefs of August 20 it was reported that the Lviv procuracy has now questioned the legality of Lviv's Resolution 699 imposing a limited ban on Russian language usage - apparently claiming such "legislative" action is beyond the enactors' powers.

Could someone (perhaps Ukrainian Embassy personnel) kindly explain how come the procuracy presumes to comment with authority on these matters? Is it not sooner within the purview of a court (e.g., Ukraine's Constitutional Court) to adjudicate upon this issue - for example via a declaratory judgment if so requested by an interested party? I would like to believe that it is not for the procuracy (the perennial "bogeyman" of the Soviet justice system) to prematurely make official-sounding pronouncements, since its "officers of the court" may well be called upon to argue one side of the case before a judicial forum.

I do believe it is appropriate to ask whether the judiciary of Ukraine today considers itself the proper medium whereby due legal process is maintained - or is the society still dependent upon the "diktat" of the "procuracy"? If the latter is the case, it would sadly appear to be a continuation of the business-as-usual attitudes of Soviet-style prosecutorial enforcers who regularly usurped the role of judge and jury to accomplish certain Communist party demands.

I remain to be enlightened about contemporary legal procedures and the role of courts in Ukraine, and I would welcome some in-depth clarification of the Lviv procuracy's recent pronouncements. Their comments seem to go beyond mere "opinions" and carry the cachet of an "official organ" - as such they may well be in contempt of the courts, as well as contemptible in the eyes of the informed citizenry of Ukraine.

Roman B. Karpishka
Lachine, Quebec

About the origins of term "Ukraine"

Dear Editor:

Regarding the etymology of the name "Ukraine," I would like to add that there does seem to be a difference between "ukraini" (in the country) and "na okrainakh" (on the borderlands), the latter, at least in modern Ukrainian, more appropriately translating as "the borderlands" which is purported to be the original meaning of Ukraine.

"Borderlands" as a title of a book, connoting a metaphysical concept, does not disturb me personally, because ethnographic Ukrainian lands were indeed historically a territory of painfully shifting political borders.

Another point: while accepting "Ukraine" as the name of our motherland, we do not, of course, forget that it is Ukraine that historically traces its roots to that other name - Rus'. Unfortunately, Peter, ruler of Muscovy, fancied the name, appropriated it for his empire, and low and behold: Rossiia ... Rossiiskaia imperiia.

Luba Gawur
Euclid, Ohio

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and commentaries on a variety of topics of concern to the Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian communities. Opinions expressed by columnists, commentators and letter-writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of either The Weekly editorial staff or its publisher, the Ukrainian National Association.

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