LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (01/28/01)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Two "complaints" from tired reader

Dear Editor:

I have two complaints.

1. The last phrase in Helen Smindak's Christmas Scenes (December 24, 2000) concerning the New York State arts grant for the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka Inc. should read: "the five groups will share the grant proportionately" (not equally). Grant disbursement is proportionate to the size of the annual budgets of the respective member-groups, which vary greatly.

2. The Ukrainian Weekly is getting too interesting. There are hardly any articles that I can skip reading, and more and more articles that I want to clip and file. This is seriously cutting into my very limited reading time budget, so, cut it out.

Veselykh Sviat i Schaslyvoho Novoho Tysiacholittia!

Bohdanna Wolanska
Bogota, N.J.

Our "hromada" and expectations

Dear Editor:

When I read Maksym Mykhaylenko's commentary titled "Ukraine's young expatriates are the key to the future" (December 31, 2000), I couldn't agree more. Ukraine needs trained personnel to shift it from a Soviet-style economy to a democratically oriented free market system.

However, the article appears to give our "hromada" a backhand slap. Stating that we, in essence, should have or could have put "Ukraine on its feet," he also appears to lament the fact that our community seems to "be less interested in Ukraine with every passing year."

The Ukrainian community in the United States has and continues to contribute a tremendous amount of work and money to Ukraine. The UCCA and UNIS make every attempt to support Ukraine in Congress. We continue to teach Ukrainian in language schools, providing excellent interpreters for the military. Our churches have embraced the newly arrived and try to integrate them into our communities.

Perhaps Mr. Mykhaylenko wants us to snap our fingers and instantly Ukraine will become a land of milk and honey. Maybe he wants us to do all the work and for Ukraine to stand idly by, saying, "you owe us." Unfortunately, the world does not work that way. Ukraine will have to do the heavy lifting. The young expatriates coming home after being trained abroad is a good beginning.

Roman G. Golash
Palatine, Ill.

Not representative of our community

Dear Editor:

Scanning The Weekly weekly, makes it clear that one reason for Ukraine's turbulence is rabid partisanship. From ultra-right to ultra-left, the parties put partisanship above nation and people.

Yet, we need only look as far as our own two major parties to see extreme partisanship here in the United States. The latest presidential campaign and election were shameful, disgusting.

Even so, I question your editorial judgment in publishing Myron Kuropas' absurdly partisan articles. I do not routinely read them, as they are ridiculous. I'm too intelligent for propaganda.

However, the December 24, 2000 column header - "Stay on message, Mr. Bush!" - caught my eye. So I read Dr. Kuropas' exemplary piece of pompous, self-indulgent, hyperbolic and deceitful rightist propaganda.

Here's one of his zingers: "Hypocrisy among liberal democrats is ingrained, a part of their very nature." Is that not an echo of what CBS was guilty of when it insulted all Ukrainians everywhere?

Here's another: "The liberal leadership in the U.S. Congress is not interested in compromise." Would Dr. Kuropas have us see Mr. Bush's parade of ultra-rightist Cabinet nominees as compromise?

And so it goes. I'm neither Republican nor Democrat. I'm Green! I like reading opinions that differ from my own, but Dr. Kuropas' writings lack the integrity that I require. Plus, they are out of place in this newspaper.

Further, should non-Ukrainians read Dr. Kuropas' columns, byline or not, it would be sad if he were thought to be representative of Ukrainian community thought. He decidedly is not.

Den Wichar
Vancouver, Wash.

Correction

A spellcheck error in the letter submitted by Walter Dziwak (January 21) rendered a phrase unclear to readers. Mr. Dziwak had written that the SAT has been renormed (not reformed), i.e., that the norm had been artificially altered to make the scores look better than they are.

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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