[plaiskegizils]

Dear Euterpe,

Reading over what I said, I can see where you have every right to be offended, however, I was making an all-too casual observation of what little I know about Greek history, and I certainly did not mean to be condescening. I am old enough to remember Greece under King Paul and Queen Fredericka as a child, and I remember that she ended her days as a non-Christian. One of my relatives was in the near -vicinity of the London neighborhood where she had to knock on someone's door, begging them to let her in and save her from those who wanted to murder her in the street! And I remember the rather severe days of the Junta. My point was actually that many peoples seem do better under monarchies, and it has always surprised me that the Greeks, who are rightfully proud of their ancient heritage, the value of which cannot be estimated. seem to not speak very much of the wonders and accomplishments of the Byzantine empire under which the very basis of the teaching of the Orthodox Church was fostered and had the opportunity to succeed. It also surprises me that a country which is by vast majority Orthodox Christian has a socialist government - But as you see, I am only getting myself into more trouble, I will admit ignorance and promise to never again comment on the government of the Sovereign State of Greece.

I would like to say that as an an American and an Orthodox Christian and a priest and monk as well, I have visited Greece three times, once living in Athens for a few days short of a month, and while I had many blessed experiences related to Orthodoxy in Greece, I daily faced the discomfort of blatant anti-American sentiments from every level of society from taxi cab drivers to monks from Mt Athos to the clerk at the very expensive hotel where I was staying who would not give me change for $100.00 American, in U.S, dollars even though I explained to him I was leaving home for the United States the next day, and needed only a few Drachmas to pay for food and my taxi to the airport. And please, don't even talk to me about Americans being "arrogant, or condescending." I must tell you that I had just spent some time in Egypt, and found the Moslem Egyptian people to be much kinder, gentler, more cooperative and far more willing to help than in a nation which considers itself Christian. The one person whom I will always remember with much love and respect is His Emininence, Seraphim, Archbishop of Athens and of All Greece, who most graciously received me and blessed me, asking forgiveness for not being able to spend much time with me. It turns out, he was talking to members of the Socialist Greek government who were attempting to confiscate several hundreds of thousands of acres of Church land, to add to that which they had already taken. The presence of the icon of the Holy Theotokos"Axion Estin" in Athens ( Nov of 1987) produced such an outpouring of Faith on the part of the Greek people, that the government backed down

Forgive,me for I surely made a faux pax, but you will note, I am not in agreement at all with our government's having attacked Iraq at the time and in the manner we did. and I do not agree with that form of "democracy" we envision for other nations Every country, has its interests, and the interests of the government of a nation and the need of its people are often different matters altogether. sometimes it is important to divorce the actions of any given government from that of the sentiments and hearts of its people. Americans, like all people support their government but may not support all of its policies.

When I was a guest of the people of Greece, on more than one occasion, I was more often than not asked to pay more than others for meals, was left standing in the street as my taxi driver took all of the money I had given him, much more than I owed, and drove off. When I was going to Mt. Athos, after spending two hours to go the three blocks from my hotel to where I would buy a ticket to Thessaloniki by train because people kept sending me in different directions, the man at the window, shouted obscenities at me for being an American, and slammed his window shut in my face! In time I learned enough Greek to politely protest and point out that the person in front of me had just paid less than half than what I had been I told to pay, and the response was unpleasant mutterings, sometimes obscene gestures. When we went to a well known ecclesiastical tailor, the owner was not there, and the lady in his shop told us that a set of vestments was usually $375,00 American, but that he always gave a better price, when we returned the next day, he said, "Dear Pateras from America, my vestments are usually $575.00 a set, but for you only, $475.00! We found much nicer vestments in Thessaloniki for $275.00 I always tried to give the Greek citizenery the benefit of the doubt, hoping that I had run into anti-clerical unbelievers, but there seemed to be a great number of them! I always wore my zostiko and rasso, and since I pick up languages very quickly, I could soon get around Athens, and buy things and order food with relative ease. Several times. when I was with another American priest monk, young men would spit on the sidewalk in front of us! Amazing and memorable experiences indeed!

We Americans can indeed be arrogant and condescending, but in general, visitors from other countries are treated kindly with interest and very warmly. I have seen many Americans attempting by sign language and kind expressions, to help foreign visitors. We make many mistakes, but we are a generous people, opening our hearts and wallets to others in need. Before the total surprise of 911, we Americans had an almost child-like trust and eagerness to welcome foreigners to our nation. Recently, on the BBC, a Swiss political analyst talking about the War in Iraq, stated that the peoples of the world, and perhaps particularly those of Europe, cannot begin to comprehend the traumatic effect effect of 911 on the American people. We are a new nation, and we do not have a history of long fought out wars, religious strife, invasions, domination bya foreign power, burning of cities, religious sites, pillaging, looting and wanton murder. We are like a spoiled child, having what we want,and we have the ability to invent, perfect, and mass produce millions of items useful to us and others, Our perspective of the world has almost no knowledge of suffering, and we have been a strong and secure nation and among the first powers of the world for nearly a century. We cannot even begin to imagine what other nations have had to go throught just to be able to have freely elected officials, a fair judiciary, and an army which does not bring terror to its own citizens.We truly felt that Saddam Hussein was a threat to not only our nation's security, but to the whole world if he could ever have the ability to produce nuclear weapons, as he was attempting to do before the American intervention in 1991 -remember, Iraq is much closer to Greece than it is to the U.S. Americans were sickened by a governement which tortured and raped its own citizens, beat and imprisoned Olympiads who did not bring home a Gold Medal, destroyed minorites with poisonous gas. Americans also know that again, because of its political "interests", the U.S. government unwittingly gave terrible weapons to the wrong people such as it did to the Taliban when it was fighting against the former Soviet Union. We are facing a very serious situation in North Korea, where the president has broken all promises and treaties, openly manufacturing nuclear missiles capable of striking Los Angeles. We bear no long time hatred, we do not hate the Iranians for taking our people hostage, or the Japanese for bombing Pearl Harbor; we cannot conceive of the hatred that the Greeks have for the Turks, the Palestinians for the Israelis. We might not be happy that France has given us such a hard time in the U.N.[ and sensible people America see their point, and respect it!] but we could not possibly even think of hating the French people, never forgiving them, wanting to take revenge upon them from generation to generation.There are a few foolish people in America who have renamed "French Fries,""Freedom Fries, " and only for awhile, but that is childish and laughable. (By the way, nobody in the entire world can fry potatoes like the Greeks, nobody!) Yes, we come barging into situations, disregarding at times the feelings of others, but in our rather silly way, we sincerley want to protect the rights and freedoms of our allies. We look to Greece as a long time friend time ally, and its freedom, prosperity, and interests are important to the American people. We do not see smaller nations as "inferior," for each country adds to our national well-being, and is, after all, an important part of the foundation and an indifvidual contributor to the greatness of our own country. As our national motto says "E pluribus unum," "From many, One." Greek American are part of that "One", and so are Irish, Italians, Turks, Jews, Chinese, Laotians, East Indians, Sikhs, Saudis, Russians, British, French, Mexicans, Colombians, Peruvians, Indonesians, all the peoples of the world are "our" people and we love and cherish them and their cultural heritage as part of our own. It is the contribution of the talents and gifts of all the nations of the world that have made us great, and we in turn have offered them the ability to not be bound by a family name, or a class, or wealth, or religion: they can be a millionare, or a live in the woods, they have the freedom to question the government, to protest, and to participate in civil disobedience. Before the war in Irag, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Americns staged protests in American cities, and in New York, the mayor ordered a "hands off policy" on the part of the police, protecting the precious right of our people t openly disgree with our government, yet to be regarded as good and loyal citizens of a free nation. Americans have the freedom of speech, of religion, to bear arms, to have a clear and free voice in their government. We have many faults and sins, but we have much that is good and in our hearts wish freely to share it with our fiends and the less fortunate of the world. Forgive us our arrogance, we really don't mean to be.

There are over three million Greeks in the United States, who constitute this nation's wealthiest minority group, and Greek culture is well-known, appreciated and supported by the Greek's fellow Americans. Where there is a Greek Orthodox parish of any size, all local residents of a town or city look forward to the annual "Greek Festival,"giving enthusiatic support, which often brings in enough money to support the parish for an entire year. Archbishop Demetrios is the most prominent Orthodox clergyman in America, bringing honor and dignity to not only the Greeks, but to all the Orthodox peoples of this country. Often, the Greek Archbishop of America has had the opportunity to meet with the President of the United States, freely expressing his concern with our polices which effects the Greek nation, and he is listened to with deep respect.

I am sorry to have offended you, I am painfully aware of what a failure America is when it comes to diplomacy, but it it is a great country, and staunchly defends the democratic rights of all men which is the noble flower of the people of Greece. We make our mistakes, but we are not alone in that, and I feel that many times we are judged much too harshly by nations we regard as our friends and whom we have supported militarily and financially over many years
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My remark was an insentive one, made without any thought of its impact, and I truly regret it. all of us Americans are overly sensitive right now, too defensive, and much more nervous and afraid than you might imagine. We have never lived in fear of sudden attack before, and we are not good at dealing with it. To all of my Greek bretheren in this community, and to all members of the Greek Orthodox Church, I ask forgiveness-crossed a line, and will try not to do it again.


Fr. Averky