PETITION
-- by Sami REPISHTI,
The Honorable George W. Bush
Dear Mr. President, Your visit there will cement the existing cordial relations and the very friendly feeling Albanians nourish for the United States. Since the days of the late President Woodrow Wilson's protection of Albania's independence to the near-providential U.S.-led NATO intervention in Kosova, in 1999, there has always been a b and pervasive conviction among Albanians that the United States is a land of liberty and justice, a model of democracy with a quasi-religious respect for the law, a beacon of hope for oppressed people, and a proven ally of Albania, and the Albanians. During your visit there, you will find that Albanians are, reflexively and emotionally, the most pro-American people in the Old Continent. This is a major factor in guaranteeing Albania's contribution to peace and stability in the region. Mr. President, in Albania you will find a population resolved to reman faithful to the tradition of freedom, and determined to honor in every individual the human greatness we all possess. Having been for a long time "the aggrieved party", Albanians have not fostered the illusions of "great design", 'thirst for conquest", or a "superiority complex" so dangerous to themselves, and to their neighbors. They have developed a natural propensity for solidarity with oppressed people. Cruelly oppressed themselves, the noble act of providing safe haven to victims of cruelty, for them is a matter of national pride. This display of humanity has been recorded during the WW II years, with the protection of the distressed Greeks, Italians, and especially Jews, and again in 1999, in providing comfort and consolation to half million Albanian Kosovars,victims of Serbian aggression. In Albania today, you will find a general confidence that after the shameful downfall of Communist dictatorship in 1991, progress and prosperity will come to Albania. You will find that Albanians know enough, care enough, and are willing to work together hard enough to make it come. There was confusion and instability in Albanian society brought about by the rapid changes, after 45 long years of violent and forceful introduction of Communist arbitrary legislation. One can still see the homo sovieticus in a frightful dec-line in morals, a disregard for honor, truth, piety, and the inevitable shameless corruption. The accompanying general impoverishment, and the discouraging decline in ethics are negatively affecting the process of the country's recovery. Communism in Albania killed the elite, mistreated the average, and glorified the inferior in mind and heart. It is this Communist legacy that is still hounding that country. Even today, by thinking of their opponents as enemies, the political forces are showing that they are willing to deal with each other with force. Today, politics has been brutalized by a class of new politicians who swear to democracy, but remain willing prisoners of Communist mentali-ty. A nation which suffers such trauma needs a generation to gain perspective, and create a fertile political culture. The tasks of social change are tasks for the tough-minded and competent. Those who came to the task with the currently fashionable mixture of passion and incompetence only added to the confusion. Albanian political leaders have embraced the position which claims that "my party" is "my country". Thus, a culture of endless rebellion has been created, coupled with a humiliating tendency to constantly look to outsiders to gain an advantage over rivals. Furthermore, the resulting harmful silence of the majority has corrupted many people's moral fiber to the point that they seem unable to recognize repressive regimes anymore, or to forecast the uncertain future. It is painful for me to state that almost everything that has happened in Albania for the last sixteen years is so preposterous that one can suspect a state of fatal mental confusion on the part of Albanian politicians. Their constant insistence on general obedience, without understanding - a main feature in a Communist society- has created a state of quasi-servitude. It is corruption, it is inhumanity, it is the opposite of a healthy tradition of constructive dissent! Mr. President, the political leadership in Albania should be reminded that our relations with their country are decided with due regard to the principles of legality and morality, and not with reference to the abominable disputes now being waged in a wild race for absolute power. We must rely on people who work hard and play by the rule. Albania needs an age of critical reflection! Your message will be heard! Mr. President. Today, the only tool I am left to protect the powerless victims of Communist terror is the written word in this Petition.
These victims have been neglected for a long time by successive and insensitive administrations, led
mostly by hardcore former communists. Today, they feel the danger of ending in oblivion. No one seems to be able to help shape the cultural justice, and perhaps find ways of addressing the injustices of the past and present, by integrating the victims fully into the society. One should visit the Museum of National History, in Tirana. A small portion of it is the guardian of universal suffering, a repository of the horrors of an unimaginable world. Only then, one realizes that the glorious generation
who opposed Communist dictatorship, who lived that nightmare, is about to fade away. Very few are left to stand up for the values of human rights and democracy.
Mr. President, I implore you to meet with their representatives, and assure them that these United States will never forget them. I implore you to lift their spirits! Respectfully submitted,
Sami Repishti, Ph.D.
cc: The Honorable Ambassador Marcie B. Ries
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