LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (07/23/06)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Yushchenko's intransigence

Dear Editor:

There you have it. President Viktor Yushchenko's intransigence and sabotage of Yulia Tymoshenko's attempts to become prime minister after she had won most of the Orange vote last March have produced a result that should not have surprised Ukraine watchers.

In the absence of cooperation within the on-again, off-again Orange coalition, its slim parliamentary majority became a minority when Oleksander Moroz, ever-active Socialist Party leader, decided that he has had enough of the president's bafoonery. Apparently offered the chairmanship of the Verkhovna Rada - a post he has been angling for since losing it years ago - if he switched sides, he did just that with some of his party colleagues, to tip the scale to- ward the pro-Russian Party of the Regions.

If Mr. Yushchenko were not a political rank amateur, he would have, as his first act after the March election, shored up the shaky Socialist flank of the coalition by supporting the bid of Mr. Moroz to become Rada's chairman. He could then relax in his presidential mantle and let Ms. Tymoshenko take the lead role in marshaling and smoothing the road to what should have been a mere formality in the Verkhovna Rada to become prime minister. Most likely, she would not have hesitated to brush off, politely or not, the unlawful blockade of the Verkhovna Rada premises by the Party of the Regions farce.

Mr. Yushchenko, instead, was stacking up the deck with his cronies and played the farce of a fictitious "presidential agenda" with an empty hand.

What actually happened defies understanding, unless one admits two possibilities. One possibility is that Mr. Yushchenko's behavior is symptomatic of some personality disorder. The other possibility is that he simply is not the person that many Ukrainians, especially in the diaspora, had imagined. In a Kyiv Post article on June 15, Taras Kuzio debunked some myths about Mr. Yushchenko's attributes. Exerpts of that same article, in a condensed format, appeared in The Ukrainian Weekly on July 2, as part of an "In the Press" overview.

The misgivings which I expressed all along about the staying power of the Orange Revolution's legacy appear to be valid while the predictions made by some at a happier time fell flat, including "The pro-Russian forces have zero chance to gain power." The percentages from the elections, close to 50-50, suggested otherwise.

It did not take long to see that the Ukrainians have a problem governing themselves. This can no longer be blamed on the outside world. Ukraine has been getting political support from the West in recent years, especially from the United States, vis-à-vis Russia. This may not last long, as an agonizing reappraisal is sure to follow.

In retrospect, even a cursory look at the purported coalition agreement of June 22 suggests that it was designed to fail, although not quite the way it actually did on July 6. The proposal of Mr. Poroshenko for the Rada chair, coupled with Our Ukraine's intent to link it, via a package vote, with Ms. Tymoshenko's nomination for prime minister, was a maneuver to stall the process and prolong the stalemate. The end game then would be the retention of the Yekhanurov government. Something had to snap in the real world, and it was Mr. Moroz.

Boris Danik
North Caldwell, N.J.

About speaking "Ukrainglish"

Dear Editor:

I roared with delight at Orysia Paszczak Tracz's column of July 2, titled "Taim-aut needed, indeed." My mother, who came to the United States in 1914 from a town near Berezhany, had that Ukrainglish down pat by the time I was born in 1926.

I had always thought it was a peculiarity of her own, until I listened to her talking with other women from other cities over the course of a visit to Soyuzivka. They were all putting English into an identical Ukrainian grammar pattern, and understood each other perfectly.

However, when my mother's sister came here after World War II to see if her husband, nicely ensconced in Montreal after escaping the war in the late 1930's would take her in (he didn't), she had a very hard time understanding my mother. My mother could not understand why she understood everything her sister said, while her sister insisted that my mother wasn't speaking Ukrainian.

I have enjoyed Ms. Tracz's column since she began. Although my parents were constantly painting in the background of Ukrainian foods, history and customs, I have learned a great deal from her. I'm looking forward to her next column.

Stephanie (Chopek) Sydoriak
Los Alamos, N.M.

Re: "Stepping up to the plate ..."

Dear Editor:

In his column, "Faces and Places," in the May 28 issue, Myron B. Kuropas proposed reasons why the Ukrainian National Association has seemingly declined.

I believe Dr. Kuropas has run way off base.

Dr. Kuropas wrote, in part:

"A second reason we're losing our edge is the apathy of the Ukrainian generation born in the 1950s and 1960s, those who today are in their 40s and 50s. The children of parents who fled the Soviets are not coming up to the plate. They don't even acknowledge the existence of a 'plate.'

"Once they went away to college, many stayed away."

Everyone that I know from the generation born in the 1950s and 1960s is an outstanding achiever. Of those who achieved a university education or better but did not return to their local community, the overwhelming majority did so for the advancement of their professional careers, which required that they pursue opportunities elsewhere.

Yet, many in this majority married Ukrainian American spouses, and have raised their children within proximate distance of a local Ukrainian community, which included participation of the children in either Plast or SUM and Ridna Shkola.

In that sense, these Ukrainian Americans have stepped up to the plate and hit home runs because they are passing on the Ukrainian heritage to their own children.

Dr. Kuropas writes further:

"The attitude seems to be: 'The Ukrainian community didn't help me when I needed it, so why should I help the community now?' Others were simply turned off by the incessant 'guilt-tripping' and 'obligation-mongering' of their parents. Saturday school, Plast and SUM may have enhanced their cognitive Ukrainianism, but failed in the affective arena. They don't view our community with affection, let alone love."

No one in my generation expected anything from the community other than the respect and affection that ordinarily should accrue to any human being.

Although my generation may not have endured the quality and quantity of hardships suffered by earlier Ukrainian generations, my generation's experience in the Ukrainian American community was not devoid of abuses.

There were verbal and emotional abuses growing up Ukrainian American during the 1950s and 1960s at all levels, whether from the nuns at the Catholic grade school, the Plast camp staff, or the teachers at Ridna Shkola. No one from my generation can legitimately say they did not witness any such abuses.

Considering the amount of abuse heaped upon those growing up Ukrainian in America during the 1950s and 1960s by those leading things Ukrainian, it's a miracle that so many of that generation have cared enough to pass on the heritage to their progeny.

On the other hand, most local united organizations' chiefs have been in office continuously for over 40 years. The argument has been that no one from the younger generation has emerged to qualify for the positions. Unfortunately, the united organizations never developed or implemented a protocol by which someone from the 1950s or 1960s generation could have been groomed for leadership.

Under that type of local leadership and participatory democracy, it's difficult to imagine how anyone born in the 1950s and 1960s could have emerged to step up to Dr. Kuropas' plate.

If the UNA has declined, it's not because the generation of the 1950s and 1960s hasn't stepped up to the plate or because they're apathetic or disaffected. It's because the UNA has failed to offer an updated mix of products and services relevant to the continued growth and prosperity of the community at large.

Eugene I. Apostoluk
Parma, Ohio

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