LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (07/20/03)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Scope of Weekly's coverage is outstanding

Dear Editor:

It is with real pleasure that we read the June 22 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly from cover to cover. Given our busy schedules this is a real testament to the quality of the publication and the excellent journalism and editorials. The scope of the coverage is outstanding and we read with much interest (and pride) about the breadth of activities that Ukrainians are involved in.

The coverage had news, sports, fashion, human interest stories that brought tears to our eyes, nostalgia in the form of Soyuzivka, as well as articles on accomplishments of Ukrainians in the fields of science, medicine and business.

The Ukrainian Weekly is truly a remarkable publication and we commend the staff on their terrific work.

Anna Bobiak Nagurney, Ph.D.
Ladimer Nagurney, Ph.D.
Amherst, Mass.

Congratulations for remarkable issue

Dear Editor:

Congratulations to The Weekly staff who have produced a remarkable July 6 issue.

The continuing saga of Duranty's Pulitzer Prize was very informative while the article on Ukrainian peacekeepers provided more information than any "mainstream" news media. What a great idea by the Detroit/Windsor group to sponsor the "Duranty Foolitzer Prize."

The new section titled "The News from Here" was not only informative, but the origins of not knowing where "here" is reminded me of past presidents. The explanation of the "news from here" concept was very funny.

Also, great article on the Kyiv Mohyla Foundation coupled with the always very interesting article by Dr. Myron Kuropas and the University of Illinois conference. It would be interesting to compare the Kyiv Mohyla University and the University of Ostroh Academy.

I loved the article by Khristina Lew and her dilemma regarding what to call her son. We had the same problem. Khristina, keep up the excellent writing.

The response to the Los Angeles Times commentary was truly powerful. The perspectives written by Stephen Bandera, Lubomyr Luciuk and Bohdan Vitvitsky were inspirational. It was a great defense and explanation of our World War II heroes who fought for an independent Ukraine.

There was also superb writing by a Ukrainian American traveling to the North Pole and an excellent review of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in the philately column.

I didn't quite understand the "Princess Olha" medal given for "improving the investment climate," however, at least President Leonid Kuchma didn't slip up and issue a Lenin medal. Congratulations to the award winner, Natalie Jaresko.

Finally, it was great seeing an article by Larissa Kyj and how the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee is providing help to Ukrainian hospitals.

Again, congratulations to The Weekly staff for putting together such an interesting issue.

Roman G. Golash
Palatine, Il.

Forget Duranty, focus on discrimination

Dear Editor:

I have seen you on television attempting to retract Duranty's Pulitzer Prize. Forget his prize; concentrate on the facts, viz. the famine America deliberately forgot.

Duranty, as an agent of the prestigious New York Times, had the responsibility to make the artificially sponsored Soviet famine in Ukraine public.

His failure to do so makes The New York Times fully responsible for Mr. Duranty's intentional misinformation!

There is, however, another aspect to be considered, viz. Democratic politics of those times. Franklin D. Roosevelt's government desired to recognize the USSR and the admission of any "artificial famine" on the part of Uncle Joe would seriously jeopardize America's foreign policies in that respect.

The Democratic and leftist New York Times was well informed of world events. The British press certainly knew of Stalin's slave labor camps and publicized them as early as 1931.

FDR's government was beset by the likes of Algier Hiss, Harry D. White and Harry Hopkins - all American pro-communists at Yalta and beyond. American Jewry was also strongly sympathetic pro-Stalinists. These are all facts; not anti-Semitic diatribes.

Thus the Ukrainian famine was denied and continues to be denied even today by American Jewry - who felt it was merely an attempt to discredit or diminish their own Holocaust, or Shoa.

Incidentally, few American Jews today realize that America could have saved at least 50 percent of the Holocaust victims - had it not been for America's restrictive immigration quota policies (prior to World War II).

These very same American Jews feel outrage if anyone dares to deny the facts of their Shoa - yet even now publicly deny our Ukrainian Holocaust.

Perhaps The New York Times was Ukrainophobic. Jewish hatred of Ukrainians was an additional motive to preclude publicizing a "Terror Famine" by America's newfound ally - Joe Stalinf.

"Worse than the Nazis" and "congenital anti-Semitism" are all the results of The New York Times' fraudulent journalism. Duranty was merely the "tip of the iceberg."

Stop sidestepping these facts and relevant issues. The New York Times was America's "eye on the world." It intentionally denied Ukrainian Genocide as did the government of the United States.

Yet now all of us are literally forced and educated on the Jewish Holocaust.

Why the blatant discrimination in this regard - even to this very day?

Andrew W. Senkowsky, D.D.S.
Van Etten, N.Y.

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and commentaries on a variety of topics of concern to the Ukrainian Ameri-can and Ukrainian Canadian communities. Opinions expressed by colu-mnists, 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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