To the Editor:

If you allow me to visit the Letters section to express some thoughts which are troubling me and to address them to the Prime Minister of our homeland: You, Prime Minister, visited us these days at the peak of Hellenism abroad in America, in Florida for the Blessing of the Waters by our Archbishop Elpidophoros and then at the White House in Washington, DC. I want to remind you that these events are not accidental. They were created one by one, stone by stone, by Worldwide Hellenism. With sweat, with struggle, with incredible effort and self-sacrifice. This expatriate Hellenism is no accident, Mr. Prime Minister. He is the one who had no destiny in life, the poor family man, the orphan, the downtrodden, who suffered during the Civil War, the one who “once in Tepeleni, twenty-two-year-old children, with a bloodied greatcoat we ran for freedom.”

This Hellenism abroad, Mr. Prime Minister, has built a Greece, outside of Greece, that shines and all humanity admires. This Hellenic community, Prime Minister, offered you Antonis Diamataris. Antonis Diamataris is not someone arbitrary. He is a ray of light of Hellenism in America and not only that. We got to know you from Antonis Diamataris. Through Antonis Diamataris we toasted in your name. From Antonis Diamataris we were waiting for your arrival in our homeland, we took out whole pages of ads to welcome you, to congratulate you, to support you in your uphill struggle to become the Prime Minister of Greece, our Prime Minister. We ‘voted’ for you without having the right to vote. And as a sign of our confidence in you, we gave you, Mr. Prime Minister, the beam of Hellenism in the Diaspora, Antonis Diamataris, who represents each one of us.

We have treated you properly. Did you treat us the same way? Was it necessary to so easily accept the resignation of the Deputy Foreign Minister for Hellenes Abroad and the Churches? To do a favor for the Opposition Leader, a ‘truant’ who has been playing the ‘clown’ and ‘truant’ all his life since his school days? You are our leader. The leader shows his mettle in difficult times. A leader of the moment does not cling to the easy things. Antonis Diamataris showed himself to be a leader, as Homer puts it: “he met many people of the city and learned their mentality.”

Thank you for the hospitality,

Stephen Cherpelis

New York, NY