Last week, after my first Wednesday pair, the local academic unit of an hour and twenty minutes, I said “hold that thought for the next pair,” when the students replied that they were going to the Skovoroda Monument across the street to a Kuchma Get Out (Het Kuchmu!) rally. I said that determining who the president of Ukraine out to be was the exclusive prerogative of the citizens of Ukraine, that I neither encouraged not discouraged participation, and that participants would be neither punished nor rewarded. I think it is their problem, not mine with my American passport, but I also think that any kind of political activity, whether I agree with its goal or not, is a good thing here in that it empowers the citizens to think about politics as something they can change, as their personal business. This is what representative self-government is all about, and with all due respect to the constitutionally appointed guarantor of the Ukrainian Constitution, citizens making their voices heard can only be welcomed as a healthy thing, a form of self-empowerment of citizens able to rule themselves.
I do not happen to know Taras Chornovil, but I did know his father and do know his mother. It really is not up to me to decide whether he is doing the right thing in his opposition to the current president. I only know that he inherited a conscience, which might not always guide him in what the objectively right direction might be, but which will certainly guide him in the direction of being honest with himself. I have stated earlier that I really do not think that Leonid Kuchma is the fundamental issue in today’s Ukraine. The issue is a corrupt system that is dysfunctional and has to be changed. And doing this means that citizens will have to get involved. They are doing so, and as long as they do so peaceably and within the framework of the law, I think this is an extremely healthy thing. After all, I might not think the American Constitution a model for everybody in this would, but the First Amendment guaranteeing, among other things, the right of the people to peaceably assemble, seems to be a basic guarantee of the most fundamental civil liberties. The question here, it seems to me, is not of individuals, in power or out, living or dead, but of process. The more people become involved in that process, the healthier this body politic will be.
