There is a monument to victims of terrorism on Mechnykov St. in Kyiv. On Monday, Sept. 11, US Ambassador to Ukraine William B. Taylor placed a wreath there to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon. Recently I visited the site of this atrocity in New York City. Volodymyr Chyzhyk, a former resident of Ukraine, who is a construction worker, student of local lore, and amateur historian, told me about those events. He was in one of the twin towers during the attack, but miraculously survived the terrorist attack.
Chyzhyk showed us the foundation pit where the city plans to build new and better structures on the site and talked about the poorly coordinated security efforts. After the first explosion some security guards tried to convince people fleeing in panic from the building to calm down and return to their offices. It sounded so familiar to those of us who had lived through the Chornobyl disaster.
In fact, there was no great panic in New York to speak of. An eyewitness said that employees and visitors who were going down the stairs were careful to let women and children go first. What dedication and courage it took to clear the debris! There is no doubt that a museum commemorating the victims of 9/11 will be built in place of the structures that were destroyed by the terrorists. In general, the people of the United States love their own history and the world’s.
The New York-based Daily News, which calls itself the largest daily newspaper in the US and meticulously records every event in its history, says its relentless campaign helped overcome the authorities’ resistance and provide benefits to those who took part in the 9/11 search and rescue operations.
All this is recent history. America began with an act of deceit, when Dutch colonists bought a patch of land from the Indians and called it New Holland, later renamed New York. At the time both sides felt sure they had made an excellent bargain. The former Europeans were happy to have paid a pittance for the island in the middle of New York Bay into which the Hudson River flows. The aborigines initially considered the sale invalid because in their world perception notions, such as air, water, and land were resources that were inseparably connected with human life and therefore belonged to everyone.
Perhaps this not-so-moral beginning had an effect on the subsequent history of this great country. However, that episode and its interpretation do not worry Americans — immigrants and their descendants — in the least. They are convinced that they live in the best country in the world (this assumption is not totally erroneous, after all is said and done). The fact that what was once useless marshland became a megalopolis continuing to attract thousands of immigrants is proof that good things sometimes come out of deceit.
Chyzhyk acquainted us with some history that is still being debated by historians and philosophers. Such an unpleasant beginning, even if some facts are still unknown, may have caused the majority of Americans to hate when they are being lied to or made fools of. This trait is actively exploited by the American press, which is always catching US politicians in lies, thereby assuming a significant part of the functions of a civil society called upon to constantly monitor and often direct the actions of its government.
The Chicago Tribune, one of the largest daily newspapers in the US with a staff of 600 people, has a print run of a million copies every Sunday and 650,000 the rest of the week. Its journalists watch the government closely and try to zero in on every case of judicial malfunction or fraud. The paper is proud of its exposes, some of which have focused on miscarriages of justice in Texas or the scandal involving fraud committed by agencies providing housing loans. The Chicago newspaper was also instrumental in the dismissal of the city’s police chief.
Current American history is not that long, which is probably why you can come across it in various manifestations. Five minutes from my hotel in NYC I stumbled on a real aircraft carrier, complete with various aircraft, including the famous Stealth plane. You may have guessed that it is a museum. Although it was closed, the security guard kindly allowed me to take pictures. I stuck the lens of my cheap camera through an opening in the mesh, feeling for just an instant like a brave Soviet intelligence officer — or if you prefer, a treacherous communist spy. If you want to admire the New York panorama, there is a special viewing platform at the Rockefeller Center. On the way there you can learn about this structure at a local museum and study revealing photographs of people lined up at the labor exchange. (America also owes its skyscraper to the Great Depression, which was marked by mass unemployment and very cheap manpower; during a similar period, Ukraine managed to build the Odesa-Brody oil pipeline, which is still not operating according to its original mode).
For a few seconds the museum staff will let you feel like one of the construction workers, who walked the narrow beams at a dizzying altitude without safety harnesses. Far below you can see workers welding and laying concrete. The impression is very real, although you aren’t walking on a beam but on a glass platform. You feel great respect for American workers and engineers.
Another impressive museum is dedicated to the founder of the Chicago Tribune, the celebrated journalist, businessman, and public figure Robert R. McCormick. Jealously preserved in his homes are the noble spirit and material symbols of his epoch. In a nearby park is another museum commemorating the first US army division where McCormick once served. Here a patriotic spirit is effectively instilled in young Americans. I spotted a middle-aged American couple; he was white and she was black. The woman was dressed in the Stars and Stripes from head to toe. Is this hypertrophied patriotism or a show of contempt? This may just be the biased impression of a foreigner, who cannot grasp the American mentality in a few days.
New York City, especially Manhattan, has often been described as a concrete jungle. I wouldn’t say that a visitor unaccustomed to such cityscapes feels oppressed by the skyscrapers. After all, we have seen them in movies and on television so many times that we can recognize many places, almost as though we are visiting our home town.
We were not taken to American city parks. Americans love spending their free time in scenic natural environs, most of which were specially designed. People play baseball and eat sandwiches, washing them down with Coke. Remarkably, there was not a scrap of paper, package, or empty bottle in sight; people take their garbage with them when they leave to dump them in garbage cans lining the paths. Parks are cleaned frequently throughout the day, which is why the garbage receptacles are never full.
In Central Park I observed a scene that would have been considered unthinkable in the Soviet Union. A white male was walking with his one-year-old youngster, who was running around. They walked over to a garbage truck parked in an alley. Needless to say, the vehicle hardly resembles what we are used to seeing in Ukraine. So it could safely stay in the park without making people wrinkle their noses. The child wanted to take a closer look. The next minute he was sitting in the lap of the good- humored African American driver and trying to turn the wheel (the word “Negro” is frowned upon in the US and its usage evokes strong protests). The father came over, exchanged a few friendly words with the driver, retrieved his son, and they walked away, with the driver waving goodbye. The child must have taken a liking to the man, because he suddenly turned around and ran back to his new black friend, while his father slowly and patiently followed him.
Racial estrangement is barely discernible in today’s America. There were groups of young whites and blacks relaxing in the park. At the Broadway Theater on 50 th Street where we watched Mamma Mia! (based on the songs of Abba) we clapped our hands off. Later, in a pub in a small university town near Chicago we found an excellent black jazz band and black singers, but the customers were all white. Perhaps the place isn’t popular with African Americans; it was crowded, noisy, and not very clean, with a thick layer of dust on the crude models of steam locomotives and automobiles, which serve as interior decorations.
The tall African American selling tickets to the show (at $15 a pop they were expensive for us) asked to see the Ukrainian passports of the Ukrainian journalists who looked too young (under 21) for American jazz and beer. Americans are very strict about protecting their youth against unhealthy habits — alcohol and cigarettes. Violators are fined and even prosecuted. A healthy lifestyle is fashionable in American society now, particularly among the young. How was this accomplished? In view of the problems in Ukraine, this rates a separate study.
Further proof that a healthy lifestyle is taking the lead in the US is jogging, which is practically an obsession with Americans. As someone once wrote, all ages submit to it. The authorities support this craze. In New York City, jogging tracks run parallel to cycling paths but never cross them. Evanston, a small town near Chicago where we spent a large part of our stay, is a joggers’ paradise. The local green belt, including the university, municipal, and private parks, teems with jogging tracks running alongside the beaches by the shores of Lake Michigan. This is not New York asphalt but a special kind of pavement made from ground gravel. Young, middle-aged, and elderly people jog as entire families, in couples, or alone. We saw a young woman jogging and pushing a baby carriage at the same time.
Evanston is a clean university town, so we were surprised to smell exhaust, especially after New York and Chicago. Its source turned out to be an old bus near our hotel and an old garbage truck near the beach. Both these cases were exceptions from the rule. In the US, even at the busiest and most congested intersections, the air is perfectly clear (at least that’s what I thought). We were told that fines for polluting are much larger than the price of modern car filters.
Mayor Richard M. Daley takes care of law and order in Chicago. During a reception commemorating Ukrainian Independence Day, he said a lot of warm words about our country. At a meeting with Ukrainian journalists the mayor’s deputy press secretary, Kate Seinson, spoke warmly about her boss and even hinted that he comes from a poor family, although Daley can be considered a hereditary mayor: he has held the post since 1989, when he succeeded his father.
But many passersby do not know his name or where his office is located, even when they are asked the question a few dozen feet from the place (I checked and found this was largely true). So city residents don’t seem to be too troubled by the mayor. Judge for yourselves: according to Kate, the time lag between the date of sale of a plot of land and the start of construction is two month. Chicago’s development is booming.
When I asked how the general public of the capital of Illinois can influence the mayor’s decisions, Kate immediately mentioned persistent contact with the press. The mayor gives between five and seven news conferences a week. All of them are outside the mayor’s office — on the site of some event. The heads of the leading municipal departments meet with the press on a weekly basis. There is a special room at the mayor’s office that is always filled with journalists accredited by the leading media.
The Chicago public works in two directions. First, there is a city council that decides all complex issues by consensus. Public hearings are often held. Second, the mayor coordinates all matters, including drafting the city budget, with various ethnic communities that may, e.g., insist on money for the construction of a school in a certain district.
The Chicago Ukrainian community’s civic and religious organizations are prominent, and on some matters they have been known to clash with the current Consul-General of Ukraine, Vasyl Korzachenko, who says the local community has “sharp teeth,” but he doesn’t take offense or complain. He is responsible for Ukrainian problems in Illinois and 10 other states. Korzachenko says the Ukrainian consulate is the “only government organization tasked with protecting Ukrainians in the US.”
In Chicago our group enjoyed a visit to the Ukrainian art exhibit organized by Sister Cities International (Kyiv and Chicago are twinned) in honor of Ukrainian Independence Day. We were told that it took nearly 15 years to prepare this exhibit, the largest devoted to Ukrainian art every displayed in the US. These works have not even been viewed all together in Ukraine. Some of the artists are Vsevolod Maksymovych, Viktor Palmov, Oleksa Novakivsky, Manuil Shektman, David Burliuk, Hryhorii Rodchenko, and Casimir Malevich. The latter’s works were contributed by the noted Russian businessman of Ukrainian extraction Kostiantyn Hryhoryshyn.
I should mention the dedicated efforts of the new Ukrainian nonpolitical organization (there are few of them here) called the International Cultural and Educational Association. Together with the US Embassy in Ukraine it organized a seminar on the media’s role in an open information society and democratic transformations in Ukraine for a group of visiting journalists from leading Ukrainian newspapers and news agencies. The project was the brainchild of Professor Larysa Koval, who is a corresponding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Pedagogical Sciences and the president of the association whose aim is to work for the good of Ukraine.
Olena Seits was the promoter, or rather prime mover, tour guide, driver, and interpreter. The Day is very grateful to her and the other members of the association, who helped us Ukrainian journalists during our visit to the United States.
By the way, Prof. Koval told us how she solved her housing problem here. Obtaining a house is not a problem, provided, of course, that you have a job. You can get a bank loan to buy a home and then make only interest payments that don’t hurt the normal family budget. Meanwhile, the price of your home keeps rising and the difference goes to the debtor, not the bank. This difference can be turned into cash or left in your account, so you can buy a better home or apartment. The Ukrainian dream of a private home — and possibly a happy one — is thus translated into life without too much effort.
