Tribune Excerpts
The following article appeared in the October 2006 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune
Evanoff reflects on achievements, progress, future of MPO
Outgoing MPO President Chris Evanoff spoke to the MPO leadership at the delegates meeting.
What a remarkable journey we have all traveled together over the past ten years!
I received one of the greatest honors in my life when the delegates and Central Committee selected me to serve as president of this great organization.
So much has occurred since that time -- most of it very good -- and a few things that could have gone better. Part of the nature of Macedonians is to be skeptical … almost cynical about people and events. However, I wish to focus on the brighter side of who we are as a people and as an organization, because Macedonians are a people of wonderful character and very industrious. I would like to discuss with you progress … the tremendous advances we have all achieved as a people and as an organization over the past ten or so years.
We are a people who believe in value and take much pride in the importance of history and traditions. Most of us realize that we have lived through an incredible time in the history of Macedonians and the MPO.
The MPO, after 85 years of existence, is vastly different today than it was when our Macedonian forefathers and patriots formed it just after World War I. Then, the MPO was a uniquely Macedonian organization comprised of Macedonians living in the US and Canada. As the MPO matured, we became more hyphenated, a Macedonian - American or Macedonian - Canadian organization, still Macedonian in focus, but with a strongly Western democratic influence. Today, we are fundamentally an organization of Americans and Canadians with Macedonian influences.
We continue to share common beliefs and a common history (sometimes). But, today’s MPO is comprised of members whose life experiences, interests, worldviews and expectations are vastly different than prior generations of MPO patriots. It is vitally important to recognize our evolution as an organization and adapt to its new membership realities in a constructive and appropriate way. I believe we have begun that process over the past ten years, and in my view, that is a measure of MPO progress. Many of your children and grandchildren have never known nor lived in a time when there was not a free and independent Republic of Macedonia! Those of us sitting around these tables, barely a generation ago, not much before 1990, ever thought that Macedonians would ever have a nation-state of their own. Some -- but not all -- of our homeland is free! Many of our friends and relatives enjoy liberties and opportunities that could only have been dreamed about less than a generation ago. That is a remarkable level of progress. What does that have to do with the progress and achievements of the MPO?
The MPO, throughout the 20th century was the one constant -- the strongest voice that NEVER gave up the dream of an independent Macedonia. Not the Europeans, not the United Nations, not the US and Canada and not even some Macedonians themselves remained true to the ideal. The MPO was always there, and it never wavered. And look at what was accomplished in 1991 with the formation of an independent Macedonian state. That, my friends, is among our greatest achievements as an organization. It is not perfection, but it is truly progress by every rational measure.
Our annual convention has hosted heads of state, ambassadors and key leaders of the Macedonian Republic and other Balkan countries. The opening address to this delegates meeting was provided by the US Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia, The Honorable Gillian Milovanovic, and the keynote address at the banquet on Sunday evening will be delivered by The Honorable Ljupco Jordanovski, Macedonia’s ambassador to the US. The MPO is acknowledged by them as a vital link between citizens and officials in the Republic and Macedonians living throughout North America. That, too, is progress.
The MPO has been, and continues to be, at the forefront in protecting and preserving our heritage and history as captured in the book Macedonian Tribune Page One: Major Events of the 20th Century, published by the organization in 1999. The project was led by Lou Todorov. In addition, our rights as an ethnic group have been defended through the efforts of MPO chapters in California, Illinois, Michigan and elsewhere that have withstood the onslaught of Greek lobbyists who sought to undermine what is rightfully ours … our history and identity as a people. Resolutions passed in these states resulted from the collective efforts of our people to stand strong in the face of organized opposition and huge odds. We all succeeded when we stood and worked together -- that is progress!
Just a few years ago, the TRIBUNE was published and distributed, for the first time, in the Republic. The special edition of the
TRIBUNE heralded the MPO’s efforts to preserve our heritage when the resolutions that I just spoke of were passed in California, Illinois and Michigan. A generation ago, a Macedonian citizen could have been arrested for even possessing a copy of the
TRIBUNE.
