THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM

FOR THE RECORD: Convention's letter to ABC's Diane Sawyer

Following is the text of a letter sent to Diane Sawyer, co-host of ABC's "Good Morning America," by the presidium of the 35th UNA Convention held in Chicago on May 24-28.

Dear Ms. Sawyer:

On Tuesday, May 28, one of your guests was Ben Affleck, star in a soon-to-be released film "The Sum of All Fears" about a nuclear device that was smuggled into the United States. From the film's promotional material we have learned that scenes from this film take place in Ukraine.

During your conversation with him, Mr. Affleck commented that he had to learn several phrases in Russian and in Ukrainian, adding that "apparently" Ukrainian is different from Russian. It is as different as Portuguese is from Spanish. One would think that journalists would know the elementary facts about the fifth largest country in Europe.

For almost two centuries Russia attempted to "Russify" Ukraine, i.e., to destroy the Ukrainian identity, including language, culture and religion. In the early 1930s this assault on the Ukrainian identity culminated in the murder by starvation of between 7 and 10 million Ukrainian men, women and children. Within this context, one can understand why Ukrainians may not appreciate the flippant reference to an "apparent" difference between Ukrainian and Russian.

We recommend that you and Mr. Affleck contact the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., in order to find out the "apparent" differences between the two languages and the persecution Ukrainians have suffered to preserve their language and culture.

Mr. Affleck then uttered a few phrases - we're genuinely not sure whether it was in Ukrainian or Russian since it was spoken so badly - one of which was "put down that gun before somebody gets hurt" and the other was "take off your boots." You then asked him to say something else, to which he replied that these phrases were the only ones he knew, "because I figure that's all you need to know to get by in the [sic] Ukraine, you know? .... Tell people to put down their guns and take off their boots. And other than that, everything's going to be just fine."

And you, Ms. Sawyer, giggled. Then you made a flip comment that Mr. Affleck is not ready for diplomacy. The comments and attitude of both you and Mr. Affleck were not only insensitive, but insulting. Would either of you have said that those two phrases are all you need to know in Northern Ireland? Greece? Israel? Any country in Africa? The United States?

We the 150 delegates of the 35th Convention of the Ukrainian National Association, representing the 50,000 members of our 108-year-old organization, on the final day of our convention issue the following statement:

"We are genuinely appalled at the insensitivity, and frankly, profound ignorance exhibited by Ben Affleck and Diane Sawyer. Mr. Affleck's comments were insulting and Ms. Sawyer's reactions completely unprofessional.

"50 million people live in Ukraine and close to 20 million Ukrainians live in countries beyond Ukraine, with more than 2.5 million in the United States and Canada. It is the birthplace of Nikolai Gogol (Mykola Hohol in Ukrainian) and of Mykola Leontovych, composer of the music for 'Carol of the Bells,' renowned pianist Vladimir Horowitz, violinist Oleh Krysa, Olympic champion Oksana Baiul, and current home of world chess champion Ruslan Ponomariov, boxing greats Volodymyr and Vitaliy Klychko, and soccer phenomenon Andrei Shevchenko.

"Need we say that among Ukraine's 50 million citizens are doctors and nurses, priests and rabbis, writers and editors, teachers and politicians, truck drivers and cooks, farmers and factory workers, engineers and scientists, academics and librarians? None of them carry guns and most don't wear boots.

"We believe that Ms. Sawyer and Mr. Affleck owe Ukrainian-Americans as well as the citizens of Ukraine an apology for trivializing their language and misrepresenting the people of Ukraine.

"We authorize the translation of this letter into Ukrainian and distribution to Ukrainian-language media in the United States, Canada and Ukraine, with copies as noted below."

On behalf of the convention,

Nestor Olesnycky
Convention Chairman

Eugene Iwanciw
Convention Vice-chairman

Zenon Holubec
Convention Vice-chairman

Cc: Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, ambassador of Ukraine to the United States; Dr. Michael Flier, acting director, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute; Ben Affleck.

Detroit UNA'ers lend a helping hand

DETROIT - The spirit of "Join Hands Day" was in full evidence on May 18, when members of the Detroit District Committee of the Ukrainian National Association and the Dibrova Estate spent the day beautifying the grounds of Dibrova in preparation for the picnic season. Seen above are some of the members who participated in the project.

Young UNA'ers

• Lev Jawny Gawdiak, son of Lada and Yurij Gawdiak, is a member of UNA Branch 134 in Rutherford, N.J. Lev was enrolled by Ulana and Volodymyr Diachuk, his grandaunt and granduncle.
  
  
• Kile and Jack Otto, sons of Tanya and Keith Otto, are new members of UNA Branch 134 in Rutherford, N.J. They were enrolled by their grandaunt and granduncle Ulana and Volodymyr Diachuk.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 9, 2002, No. 23, Vol. LXX

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