EDITORIAL: How about you? (11/17/02)

EDITORIAL

How about you?

Have you read news about your community in The Ukrainian Weekly lately, say in the past three months? If you are from Parma, Ohio, Woonsocket, R.I., Hunter, N.Y., Whippany, N.J., Danbury, Conn., San Francisco or Toronto, the answer is yes.

However, if you are from Los Angeles, or Minneapolis, Houston or Edmonton, well, that's quite another matter. There's no news from you folks! And it can't be because there's nothing going on. Even New York lags in terms of community news. It's only due to the feats of our reporter on the cultural/arts scene who attends myriad events in the city that some community events make it into the paper. Otherwise, there's precious little in the way of article submissions from our hromada there. Chicago and Cleveland get some coverage thanks to two of our columnists, but their observations are not, strictly speaking, news reports on the community. Philadelphia and Detroit also come to mind as hubs that are underrepresented in the news.

And then there are our more distant and/or smaller communities, plus the ones beyond what is seen as the traditional core of the Ukrainian community in North America. What about western Canada? What about the states that, according to the latest census have the fastest growing numbers of Ukrainians - Washington and Oregon? Our community is becoming ever more dispersed, so it would be most interesting to hear from folks beyond our neck of the woods.

Add to this mix the communities that send in information about events in advance of those events - but none afterwards - and you see there is a real gap in coverage. Much as we'd like to report on one and all, the fact of the matter is that our editorial staff of 2.5 here in Parsippany (plus a colleague in Kyiv, who tries to cover all of Ukraine) can't. That's why we depend on community activists to work with us and provide news, photos and observations from their locales. The stories needn't be long; they needn't be the definitive work of great writing; they needn't be stories at all, as sometimes a good photo with an informative caption will do. The key is information - interesting news that you'd like to share.

The point, Dear Readers, is that we - and no doubt your fellow readers - would like to hear from you, and about you. The pages of this newspaper await your submissions. So, no excuse: there is no reason why there should be no news from your community. We at The Weekly like to think of this paper as a forum for the exchange of news and ideas, as a cooperative venture between our readers and the editorial staff here in Parsippany, N.J. Why not become a correspondent for your community? We welcome submissions from all our Ukrainian hromady. Let the rest of us know what you're up to in your corner of the Ukrainian diaspora. This way, we're all in touch and au courant, and we can learn from each other's experience. Let The Ukrainian Weekly serve as our community network.

(PS: Any questions, call The Weekly, 973-292-9800, ext. 3049.)

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