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On September 12, I was called to duty at the US Embassy in Kyiv. The US Defense Attache was going to make an official call on the Ukrainian Defense Minister and asked me to come along as interpreter. I have only a hazy recollection of what happened at that meeting. I am sure the Minister of Defense offered his condolences on behalf of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and offered, as well, any support that the US might need in the war on terrorism. How ironic, I remember thinking, that one of the youngest nations on earth was offering assistance to, arguably, the most successful, strongest and richest country on earth. All I really remember is trying very hard to focus on the words that I had to interpret and simply being unable to make my brain function properly. The simplest terminology stumped me. I admit that this was probably the worst job of interpreting I have ever done in my ten year career as a diplomatic interpreter for the US government. After another two days, I finally did start on my journey home. What usually takes two flights totaling less than twelve hours, took three days. It involved a commercial European flight, two uneasy nights spent in two US military bases in Germany, many hours spent anxiously awaiting news of possible military flights (all commercial flights were still grounded), and finally, a long and extremely uncomfortable flight on a lumbering US military cargo plane which landed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. From there I made my way back to DC and finally.. .finally to my home. The interminable journey back to the US certainly did give me time to reflect on things. First of all I was terribly grateful that all my friends and loved ones, both in New York and Washington, were safe. I also realized how lucky I had been until now. After all, my friends and I had lived our whole lives knowing nothing but peace and great prosperity. Unlike many of the Ukrainians in Kyiv who had shown such concern for me just a few days before, I had never known hardship and terrorism and oppression firsthand. I had never had to struggle against the repressive regimes of the Nazis, the Poles, and the Communists as they might have done. However, I didn’t have to travel 3000 miles to Ukraine to find people who had had such experiences. I had only to look to my own parents and grandparents, whose stories about their war experiences alternately fascinated and bored me throughout the years. They were eyewitnesses to death and destruction in World War II. That is exactly why they chose to come to the US - to experience the freedom from political and religious oppression and the freedom from fear and from want that terrorists were now attempting destroy in their adopted homeland. We - Ukrainian-Americans of all generations - have a distinct advantage in difficult times like these. There must be something in our genetic heritage that has helped our nation survive attacks this destructive. Our ancestral homeland has been through centuries of devastation: serfdom, repression, famine, wars, mas sacres, bombings, terror, Stalinism, collectivization, communism. All of these constitute an integral part of our collective history. And yet, despite the over whelming odds, we have survived. Our culture, our traditions, our language, our spirituality have also survived. The greatest confirmation of this is a scene that I know is being recreated in hundreds of thousands of homes here in the US and millions of homes in Ukraine in this Christmas season. Throughout the world, despite the uncertainty in the US - or perhaps in spite of it - Ukrainian families will be sitting down to “sviata vechera”, eating varenyky and kutia and singing Ukrainian Christmas carols as has been done for hundreds of years. It was done in time of peace and time of war; it was done openly and in secret; it was done during the repressions of the 1960’s in Soviet prison cells; it was done in underground caves by UPA soldiers in the 1940’ and 50’s; it was done in the displaced persons camps in Germany by my parents and grandparents. Let us now take that genetic predisposition to survival, the determination that allowed our forbears to survive centuries of Ukraine’s tumultuous history, and couple it with the most wonderful qualities of our adopted nation. As Americans we have internalized the principles on which this country was founded: appreciation for individualism, initiative and inde pendence, respect for human and civil rights, and tolerance towards those who differ from us, which leads us to give a warm embrace to those immigrants who came after us. As Ukrainians we have inherited strength of character, the fierce determination to reach our goals, the ability, in the words of Lesya Ukrainka, to “hope against hope”. All of these qualities taken together, I believe, will greatly assist us in overcoming the terrible loss that our country, and our community, has suffered.
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