By Borys Prokopovych

Ever since the first wave of Ukrainian immigrants came to America, the primary goal was to preserve and perpetuate Ukrainian culture and traditions in the Diaspora and to work toward the independence of Ukraine. To this end, churches, fraternal organizations, Ukrainian schools and centers were established. Ukrainians willingly donated their time, energy, and hard-earned funds to Ukrainian causes, raised their children to continue their efforts and established a vital link between the past and the present. While the Soviet regime was forcibly reducing Ukraine to a peasant subculture of Mother Russia and incorporating the history of Kyivan-Rus as their own Russian heritage, Ukrainians in the Diaspora were fighting daily to maintain their ethnic identity, educating non-Ukrainians to the true nature of the Soviet system and working for Ukraine's freedom. They did this without any of the government assistance available to immigrants today. For our grandparents and parents, there was no welfare, no tax forgiveness, no mortgage assistance or other support. They took whatever jobs they could find, sacrificed and scrimped to support Ukrainian organizations and kept Ukraine alive in the Diaspora. With Ukraine's independence in 1991, we in the Diaspora felt justifiably proud that our efforts for over 60 years had, in some way, helped the cause of freedom for Ukraine and eagerly welcomed the new wave of Ukrainian immigrants to our communities.

Unfortunately, some of the new wave of Ukrainians showing up in our communities make us question why we bothered to work so hard and create an initial resentment of all new wave immigrants. Our parents made tremendous sacrifices to ensure we learned Ukrainian in the Diaspora when it would have been so much easier to simply melt into the pot. They made sure we knew the history of Russia's repeated attempts to wipe out the Ukrainian language, culture and traditions altogether. We now look at the new wave and wonder what for. A certain minority of "convenient" Ukrainians are merely opportunists. They are Ukrainian when they need the free services our communities provide, or they are Russian when dealing with non-Ukrainians. These opportunists arrive at our centers and resorts and antagonize us by speaking Russian. They treat us as if we owe them everything simply because they're from Ukraine. They try to use our facilities without paying as the rest of us do. They play loud Russian music, are increasingly belligerent and have a total disregard for the people around them - in short they act like the Russians we helped free them from. If these "convenient" Ukrainians prefer Russian, why do they even come into the Ukrainian community? There are enough Russian-speaking communities that they can go to. Maybe because they have found that no one enforces the laws and regulations of our organizations and they can get away with actions they would be arrested for at non-Ukrainian establishments.

After 60 years of non-stop effort, our Ukrainian organizations are dying out. What little money comes in from declining attendance at our functions and resorts is needed just to keep things going. Here again, the new wave opportunists show their disdain for our efforts. They try to avoid admission fees at our resorts, festivals, or other social functions. They sneak in their own food and drink at fundraising dances. They set up campsites without permission or payment and become threatening when asked to leave. It's not that they can't afford it; they dress in designer clothing and drive brand new cars. It's the attitude that everything we in the Diaspora willingly pay for to support our organizations belongs to them. They don't care that the only source of income for Ukrainian organizations comes from donations, dues, and fundraising activities.

Yet, after decades of effort and huge amounts of money spent on behalf of Ukraine, we are reluctant to do anything serious about the obnoxious behavior of these new wave parasites. We make excuses for their lack of Ukrainian nationalism and community involvement. We point out that the Soviet system encouraged dishonesty and deceit by severely controlling every aspect of life. We feel sorry that they were raised on Soviet lies and now need to learn how to be Ukrainian again. After all, these are our brothers that we worked so hard, for so long, to free.

Now that we no longer have the driving force of Ukrainian independence that kept us a strong Ukrainian Diaspora, our organizations need to change missions in order to survive. As older leaders retire, fewer younger people want to support questionable causes in Ukraine, especially when they see the lack of appreciation for their efforts. They would rather work to enhance and strengthen Ukrainian life in their own communities where they can share the benefits with family and friends.

It takes a lot of money, effort and quite a few tricks to get a visa today. The fact that the new wave made it here one way or another indicates that these are capable people. So it seems the opportunists among them just don't care what the Ukrainian Diaspora has done for them, only what they can get out of it. While we welcome the majority of Ukrainian immigrants who are thankful the Diaspora has maintained places they can come to and want to work with us in promoting Ukrainian causes, we need to stop making excuses for those whose selfish actions cause more and more of our loyal supporters to leave. We need to prosecute those who blatantly violate our rules as we would any other lawbreaker.