Holiday Salutations!

223 years ago, Thomas Jefferson, one of America's Founding Fathers, third President and author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Precisely the words laid down in the Declaration of Independence of the former British colonies that have since formed the basis for the prosperity of the free and independent United States.

Feel the difference? Here one is always supposed to labor for the sake of one's country's happiness, not one's own. Across the ocean they assume that one should be provided the conditions to feel happy about living in and working for one's country. Of course, our ideologues always scorned this "rotten capitalist individualism." Instead, the older generation remembers these lines: "We shall bravely fight for the Soviets' cause/ And shall, if need be, all die in this noble fight." Such is our way, and if we have not died fighting for it, we will live working according to the song, "My only concern is that my native land live and prosper."

Celebrating US  Independence Day has its history in Kyiv. Three, maybe four years ago, it was greeted on Lake Telbin. The last few years, festivities have been staged at the Spartak Stadium. The very choice of sites testifies to the US Embassy lighthearted approach to this important event. Indeed, no Ukraine Palace official pomp, complete with officials droning on for an hour giving a detailed review of America's ups and downs over the past 223 years. Believe it or not, no one on those festive occasions called for dedicating all of one's creative and physical strength to building the independent American state. On the contrary, after serving free chicken and Slavutych beer to all in attendance, there was much Dixieland music, volleyball, and paratroopers landing on the field, greeted by a cheering well-fed and somewhat tipsy audience. And there were children running around, happy that no one told them to keep quiet and behave. Hard as this author tried to deliver a brief congratulatory speech, nobody seemed interested, telling him to relax and enjoy himself (insulting at first perhaps, but then accepted as a matter of course).

What makes them so happy? I asked myself and detected a note of jealousy. Is it that they are served all the free Coca Cola and ice cream they can consume? The more so that when I approached a table to imbibe the delicious cold drink I was amazed to identify the dispenser as a major US company executive operating in Ukraine, and then I spotted others of the same caliber, doing the same. Now could you picture a Ukrainian Cabinet bureaucrat serving lemonade and beer on Khreshchatyk on August 24?

And as the festivities approached their close I found myself witness to something absolutely unbelievable, a conversation between a well-built handsome Black American serving Slavutych beer and a couple of Ukrainian militia patrolmen.

"How about a couple of beers?" one of the patrolmen asked good-humoredly.

"You're on duty, wearing the uniform, aren't you?" came the reply.

"Aw, forget the duty, it's so hot, you know."

The Black American's reply showed that he had spent quite some time in Kyiv:

"Suppose your duty officer finds out?"

"Look, don't worry it, we can take care of him. Just give us that beer, there's a good boy!"

The man did, serving them two glasses and there were two more happy men during the US Independence Day festivities in Kyiv. And there were the Kyivans watching the celebration from across the stadium fence. The heat was oppressive, yet they stood there.

One has an inspiring thought: maybe 215 years from now there will be such festivities in Ukraine somewhere? Yet one should always remember that Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma cut different figures than Thomas Jefferson.