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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 2018 WWW. UNWLA . ORG 3 3 Fruits o f Our Labors by Ann - Marie Susla, Branch 56 For many, many years the members of UNWLA Branch 56 in southwest Florida have had had a cooperative relationship with the public libraries in Sarasota County. We enjoy an especially warm relationship with the staff at North Port Library wh o have always welcomed our annual exhibits , whether they are seasonal ( Christmas and springtime exhibit s ) or educational/historical , such as exhibits about the Holodomor or the Chornobyl nuclear disaster . The positive interactions have served to enlighten the public about Ukrain- ian customs and issues and have even served to inspire a former librarian at Nor th Port Library, Janis Russell, to write a poem about Ukraine and read it at the Open Mic poetry evening at her local Coffee House in Warrensburg, Missouri, where she now lives . Janis recently sent her poem to me and wants to share it with our membership . It is worth noting that b efore reading her poem at public venues , Ms . Russell provides the following introduction: The town I moved from in December, North Port , Florida, was settled by Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans, but mainly Ukrainians. They we re drawn to the Mineral Springs, called Little Salt Springs, for its soothing and healing powers. So, after I learned more about the his- tory of this community, I gained respect and admiration for it and them. And eventually every year for Earth Day, the wo men Ukrainians of the town would ask that the library I worked at have some kind of program that was about World Peace, but essentially about Chernobyl. After hearing my poem, I hope you will (1) better understand what these 3 topics have to do with each o ther, especially to Ukrainians, and (2) understand why I want to celebrate these women and their ancestors, Survivors All!” P.S. “Definition of sarcophagus: a box - like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved i n stone, and usually displayed ab ove ground, though it may also be buried.” The Shock and Awe Waltz T he sky cracked open with radioactive poisons 400 times worse than Hiroshima. The Chernobyl Meltdown: May 1986. Northern Ukraine... when a Soviet - sanctioned “safety test” went awry. Irr adiating everything from Japan to North Wales, contaminating crops, stunting trees and the next two generations of children. L est we forget a previous Soviet blunder of the 1930’s, when Stalin sealed off Ukraine’s borders and systematically starved over 3, 000,000 farmers and their families. This forced famine was disregarded by the more “civilized” Western world, until World War II refugees escaped and exposed the scope of this ethnic purge. N ow fast forward to this current climate of Russian empire - buildin g terrorism: deploying tanks & missile launchers for illegal annexation of Crimea. Ten thousand dead, over a million displaced. Again closing borders. How apt the Chernobyl Power Station built to contain radioactive gases and confine radioactive waste is c alled a Sarcophagus. How deadly, no, how suicidal that global warming has the whole world enclosed in a furnace funnel . I sn’t it — ultimately, imminently — up to us? To perform more of a massive Gandhi - like sit - in and less of a tango? − Janis Russell Starte d for Earth Day 2012; f inished May 2018
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