LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (12/29/02)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Famine memorial must educate

Dear Editor:

Your editorial about the need for a proper memorial to the Famine (December 8), in which you endorse the suggestion of Morgan Williams that any Ukrainian World Congress memorial should include an educational and research center that would house a museum and library is not only right on point but extraordinarily important.

The bizarre current state of affairs in which, some 70 years after the Famine took place, most people don't even know it happened, while some scholars who do know about it take great pains to deny that it was part of the Russo-Soviet genocidal campaign against Ukraine, requires a remedy.

That remedy should be modeled upon Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Bohdan Vitvitsky
Summit, N.J.

Legitimate debate and our freedom

Dear Editor:

Dr. Myron B. Kuropas' appreciation of Thanksgiving (December 1) and the kinds of freedom in the United States that allowed the flourishing of a Ukrainian (and many, many others) community here was an example of his writing at its best - warm, passionate and grounded in historical perspective.

Then came the final paragraphs, which to me contradicted some of the values that we Americans are thankful for.

Much as he may dislike it, there actually is a legitimate debate about whether a military invasion of Iraq is the best course for this country to take. The debate is not between respectful, loyal Americans and those "praising the likes of Saddam and Arafat."

Although acts and statements by some extremists in opposition to the Vietnam War may have rightfully disgusted him, there came to be a legitimate debate about continuing the war. Many respected religious, political, community leaders and ordinary citizens embraced the opposing view. These people were not "kneeling at the altars of Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh and Mao Tse Tung."

The pronouncement that there is one viewpoint grounded in reason, logic and patriotism, and an opposing viewpoint that could only be held by traitorous lovers of America's enemies is a well-established tactic. It was a tactic not generally used by Ukrainians, but against them.

Of course, the thing we are thankful for is that here, in America, Dr. Kuropas has the right to say what he pleases, and I have the right to disagree.

Steve Lann
Kensington, Md.

More on complicity and terror's victims

Dear Editor:

On November 10 I wrote a letter to the editor of The Ukrainian Weekly regarding the statement made by Dr. Myron B. Kuropas that "... practically every Ukrainian family had someone, somewhere, somehow, who was complicit in the debasement of other Ukrainians" in the Soviet Ukraine. I wrote that such a statement is irresponsible and false and that Dr. Kuropas should apologize to the victims of terror.

So far there has been no response from Dr. Kuropas. However, in a November 24 letter, Dr. Andrew M. Senkowsky asked: "Why should Dr. Kuropas apologize for telling the truth?"

How do Dr. Kuropas or Dr. Senkowsky know that that is the truth? Does Dr. Senkowsky have any statistics, any facts to prove it? If Dr. Senkowsky researched the subject, then most likely he has statistics not only on the collaborators but also on the victims. How many families lost their fathers, mothers, brothers through starvation, execution, deportation to Siberia? How many victims died and how many returned home broken after interrogation by the Cheka, GPU and NKVD? Were there more families in Ukraine who collaborated with the Soviet regime or more who lost family members because of that regime?

If such statistics exist, I would like to add my family to the "Victims' Column." My grandfather Ivan Lehky, 56, of Hadiach, Poltava Oblast, died of starvation in 1933. In the same year my uncle Hrycko Lehky, 17, together with other teenagers found a dead horse in the field. As they were eating the meat they were caught, arrested and jailed. They were accused of killing the horse, thus destroying state property. My uncle starved to death in jail.

That is the truth I live with, not "the truth" casually proclaimed by Dr. Kuropas.

As far as the rest of Dr. Senkowsky's letter is concerned, it covered wide areas which had little to do with the subject discussed. But I will take issue with two subjects discussed in that letter.

Dr. Senkowsky says that he agrees with me that "... many of us suffered in silence, being deprived by Ukraine of properties nationalized ..." In my letter I never mentioned "properties." My concern is people, not property.

The second statement of the letter: "who put those tormentors in power, but the majority of Ukrainian people, who still believe in the ideology of communism ..." The answer to the first part of the question is given by Dr. Senkowsky himself. He correctly stated that both presidents of independent Ukraine "... were high-level Communist apparatchiks." These and the other apparatchiks were put in power not by Ukrainian people but by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. They never gave up that power even after the proclamation of Ukraine's independence. As to the ideology of communism - during the last national election the Communist Party of Ukraine received 20 percent of the votes. It is obvious that 80 percent of the voters in Ukraine do not believe in the ideology of communism.

Alla Lehky Heretz
Rutherford, N.J.

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typed (double-spaced) and signed; they must be originals, not photocopies.

The daytime phone number and address of the letter-writer must be given for verification purposes.

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