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Demonstration Deja Vu For many of us, the month of November brought cold winds and rain, interspersed with news and rumors and the tumult and turmoil of two national elections. Swirling like autumn leaves were banners and balloons and placards supporting local and na tional candidates. Heated debates and cries of foul play resounded before and after. On this side of the Atlan tic, the hue and cry subsided and calm returned rather quickly. In Ukraine, the hue and cry continued to wax as two presidential candidates and their respective al lies in Ukraine and around the world clamored for an equitable resolution. This issue of Our Life goes to press before that resolution has been achieved. Both elections were important to the Ukrain ian American community. As citizens of the United States, we each chose to vote for the presidential can didate we believed would be best for the United States. As Americans of Ukrainian descent, we viewed the elections in Ukraine with pride mingled with conster nation. Our attention was riveted to reports on the Internet, televised reports from the major networks and cable news networks, and front-page articles in the American press. Email messages with requests that recipients contact local and national government lead ers and encourage them to support Viktor Yushchenko flew through cyberspace. As a community, we rallied by making telephone calls to the White House, writing letters and sending faxes to lawmakers and the media. As we had in the years preceding Ukraine's declaration of independence, we also rallied in the streets. Sporting orange scarves and ribbons and bal loons and shirts and armbands, we gathered in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other metropolitan areas with Ukrainian American communities. We spoke or listened to other speakers, proudly waved the Ukrainian flag, and carried signs proclaiming our sup port for Ukraine's democratic candidate. In Philadelphia, the hromada rally occurred shortly after news had broken that Ukraine's parlia ment had declared the elections invalid—a symbolic gesture of defiance by Ukrainian lawmakers that was a moral statement protesting what international observ ers had called an election riddled with fraud and cor ruption. It was a gesture that showed the fierce deter mination of a people unwilling to concede to "business as usual." And so, buoyed and energized by this defiance and by the televised images of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Kyiv, we rallied in support. It was an experience punctuated by an odd sense of levity and festivity. Many of us, veterans of countless protest demonstrations and rallies over the decades, embraced old comrades in arms joyfully. "Here we go again" echoed across the site of the rally, the plaza at Philadelphia's 6th and Market Streets where America's symbol of freedom, the Liberty Bell, is housed. The area is a mecca for tourists, and the tour ists who had come to the city from across the United States or from foreign countries watched with fascina tion, took countless photographs, and voiced their sup port for us and for Ukraine. Cars passing the site con tributed to the buoyant mood as drivers honked their acknowledgment and approval. Especially poignant were the children and preteens who were participating in their first demon stration, passionately demonstrating not only their signs and flags and orange banners, but their excite ment at being part of an historic event. Many of these young people had heard their parents and aunts and uncles reminisce about such gatherings. Others had recently emigrated from Ukraine. All had come to carry on the decades-long tradition of a diaspora de termined to support its beleaguered ancestral home land, proudly and loudly chanting their support for Ukraine's civil, human, and moral rights as a sovereign nation. - Tamara Stadnychenko Errata. We regret the typographical error in the title of the review of Lina Kostenko's Landscapes of Memory, which was written by Marta Tarnawsky and published on page 18 of the October issue of Our Life. Our most sincere apologies to Ms. Kostenko, Ms. Tarnawsky, and our readers. Thank you to our authors for the wonderful articles that they contributed to Our Life during the year. We also ap preciate comments from our readers and hope that you will write and share your opinions about the materials that we publish. Please forward your letters and articles to English language editor Tamara Stadnychenko c/o UNWLA headquarters. We ask that all contributors include a telephone number to allow us to acknowledge submissions and verify information. 14 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 2004 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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