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INTERMARRIAGES — THE CURRENT REALITY OF OUR LIFE To our idealistic Ukrainian parents the reality of cross-ethnic marriages of their children is often a living nightmare that might even lead to the tragic conse quences in the lives of their families. The immediate question that arises is: How to deal with this complex problem? This question has been dis cussed and explored in our diaspora society for some time. The answers valid only to a certain degree and only in certain circumstances, have, of course, to do with the way parents bring up their children. Logically, this involves teaching the children from an early age to respect and to love the culture of their parents’ country, to choose Ukrainian companions for them, to enroll them in Ukrainian schools and youth organizations, and to lead them to worship in Ukrainian churches. All these measures contribute positively towards keeping our youth in a healthy Ukrainian environment and eventu ally retaining them in the Ukrainian society. But "THE AFFAIRS OF THE HEART” of a young person are not all that simple — we cannot order our children whom to love. And when the choice of our son and our daughter is not what we expect and want for them, what do we do then? Do we disown our children completely, or do we wholeheartedly approve their cho ice of a mate? Or are there other alternatives — less drastic — in these very complicated emotional situa tions for both, the parents and their children? Maybe we, as parents who have reared our children in the Ukrainian spirit, should have faith in what these children will accomplish to preserve their heritage and this spirit in their children... and, who knows, maybe even in future generations? In an interview with a young Ukrainian woman, married to a non-Ukrainian, we learned how she attemp ted to resolve this question of a cross-ethnic marriage and the rearing of their children. The woman’s name is Ola. She is a daughter of well-known Ukrainian parents who actively supported both social and scientific Ukrainian causes and pro jects. Ola was reared and educated in a Ukrainian environment, belonged to "Plast”, and for all purposes, was an example of the "intellectually aware” young Ukrainian generation. But seven years ago Ola decided to marry her college friend — a non-Ukrainian. Then, as it usually happens, there were numerous pertinent and often critical discussions among her closest relatives and friends regarding her decision. And today, when Ola is a young mother of two children, it is interesting to hear her reflections and her outlook on the life of her young family. Our questions and comments, and Ola’s responses follow as we spoke with her. Q u e stion : Ola, considering your heritage and your up bringing, was the choice of your life-partner a very diffi cult matter for you to contemplate? A n s w e r: Partially. We fell in love, had a wonderful rela tionship for a long time during our studies, did get to know each other very well, knew our characters and our interests and our aspirations. In this respect, for me personally, the decision was not difficult. However, because of my Ukrainian upbringing and my parents’ hopes of having a Ukrainian son-in-law, as well as my belonging to a Plast kurin that excludes members mar ried to non-Ukrainians, I was very painfully aware of the consequences and these were complicating my decision making. This situation was partially ameliorated by Bob — members of both houses. This was done several days later when it was finally approved by members from both houses and then signed into law on October 2, 1984 by President Reagan. With the presidential signa ture the famine commission bill became the law of the land. The commission was scheduled to be formed at the beginning of the 99th Congress in 1985, but it did not start functioning until May 1986. This happened because of neglect by the chairman of the famine commission Dan Mica who, through inaction, let the funding slip back to the US treasury. AHRU was instrumental in retrieving the money and finally in May 1986 the Ukrain ian Famine Commission started to function. Dr. James Mace was its director and did the bulk of the research and the oral history project. The commis sion worked for two years and in 1988 it released its findings. The most significant finding was that Joseph Stalin and his cohorts did indeed commit genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-33. Since the compilation of the oral history project was not completed, the life of the commission was extended and an additional fund ing of $100,000 was issued by the US government for the balance of work, making the funding a total of $500,000. In 1990, the three-volume Oral History Project was published. It contained survivors’ accounts of the 1932-33 genocidal famine in Ukraine and is thus re corded for posterity. 22 ’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЧЕРВЕНЬ 1994 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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