Irvington students ditch communist theme [Article]

From New York’s Lower Hudson Valley:

The class vote was part of the school’s Color Wars, to take place next month. A T-shirt was to feature a hammer and sickle on the front and “Isn’t it Time You Joined the Party” on the back.

If that phrase made you smile, it was meant to. The students were intending to be funny, even envisioning a party hat perched on the sickle.

If it didn’t, not everyone saw the humor.

“I just thought it was very inappropriate and offensive,” said 17-year-old Michael Schur, a senior whose relatives died in Ukraine under Stalin’s rule and whose mother complained to the principal.

Now the design has gone the way of the Soviet Union, and the juniors have substituted a video game figure, Mario, the intrepid Italian plumber outfitted in red and blue.

“We wanted to do something that was a little bit witty, smart humor,” said the class president, Isabel Garcia. “We thought we were being original.”

Some of Schur’s family escaped from Ukraine as Stalin forced the collectivization of farms in the 1930s, resulting in millions of deaths. The famine is known to Ukrainians as the Holodomor.

Would Jews find anything about a swastika to be funny? asked Schur’s mother, Sonya.

But communistic images — from the red star to likenesses of Che Guevara and Mao — have a history of chic, radical or otherwise. Trace it to the intelligentsia’s flirtation with communism in the early part of the last century or the counterculture revolutionaries of the 1960s.

Once Schur complained, the principal, Scott Mosenthal, told Garcia that the juniors would have to reconsider.

As for Schur, did he persuade his schoolmates to view the hammer and sickle differently?

“In the end I really don’t think I made my point,” he said. “I just aggravated a bunch of people.”

Read the rest of the article

We think it’s very commendable Michael, way to stick up to yourself!

‘The Soviet Story’ makes its Toronto debut tomorrow

If you haven’t seen The Soviet Story yet, it’s a really great documentary on the horrors and genocides perpetrated throughout the life of the Soviet Union. You can watch its first screening in Toronto that I know of tomorrow:

The Ukrainian Students’ Club @ York University in cooperation with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Toronto and the League of Ukrainian Canadians is very pleased to invite all of you to THE SOVIET STORY documentary screening.

The screening is planned for 3.00 pm. on Sunday, January 31, 2010 at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre, 85 Christie Street, Toronto.

$15 tickets for adult
FREE for students (don’t forget to bring your student card!)

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Ukrainian news round-up – Jan 25 2010

First news round-up of 2010!

Politics

Holodomor


Local news

Abroad


Sports

Holodomor to make US cable debut tomorrow

Tomorrow at 5pmET on FOX News, Glenn Beck will air his first documentary ‘Revolutionary Holocaust, now: Live Free or Die’ on his show to ‘set out to correct progressive lies’, as announced on his national radio show:

A groundbreaking hour long special where Glenn Beck takes us back in time to examine the roots of socialism and communism and the evil that followed. We all know about the horrors of the holocaust where the pure evil Hitler inspired claimed the lives of millions of innocent people. But most do not know about the millions upon millions of lives lost in a different genocide of the Ukrainian people under the Stalin regime. This special also takes a look behind the iconic fashion symbol of Che Guevara showing that the myth doesn’t tell the story of the man who was a blood thirsty killer. We meet a family who saw first hand what a monster the man was. They know the cost of communism and you will too when you hear their story, and who can forget about Mao Zedong? A leader responsible for 70-million deaths during his reign. All communist. All killers. We will show you things you’ve never seen but need to. a

An impressive line-up of Holodomor experts:

Watch it on Canadian TV:

  • Bell ExpressVu – Ch. 507
  • Rogers Digital – Ch. 181
  • for other TV subscribers you’re on your own to find FOX news, often abbreviated ‘FOXNC’ on TV Guide listings

You might even be able to watch it online live!