[ALBSA-Info] Albanian Flag Day - 2003

[albboschurch at juno.com]

                         Thoughts on Albanian Flag Day - 2003

        Just one hundred years ago, the Albanian people found themselves
in their own ancestral homeland living in the fog of foreign suzerainty. 
Deprived for centuries of joy in their own identity, many had sought and
achieved success by other means, or even elsewhere, usually under the
flags of whomever happened to pass through their neighborhoods at any
given moment. Eager to learn, but without their own schools; lacking a
consistent and open means of expressing their own unique heritage, they
were altogether marginalized by willful circumstances beyond their
control.  A venerable folk, inheritors of worthy values and codes, they
managed to struggle and endure in the clouded ambience of a world already
in the throes of its own transitions.  Theirs had been an ambiguous
history unknown to others and barely known to themselves.

       From the cauldron of the regional wars of that time, they emerged
anew, overcoming enormous obstacles both external and internal. 
Exceptional leaders arose among them to forge a new path and find a new
way for a fledgling young state. Before 1912, even the visionaries among
them were unsure as to what course to take.  As with any pioneering
venture - with no map to guide them or compass to orient their journey -
they shuffled with characteristic passion and not without ambition, to
fathom the formation of a 20th century state. Caution and prudence are
not words usually found in our diplomatic vocabulary. Pride and assertion
are more common. More often than not, they only partially succeeded in
that endeavor; and to this day find regional or individual self-interest
a more familiar turf to handle, than a more comprehensive approach to
governance. We are not alone in this, of course; but our expectations are
higher, especially of ourselves and of our kind.      

        By now, we've come to learn that survival alone is not enough of
a satisfaction, and that more appropriate and enduring avenues are yet to
be identitfied and - more importantly -  applied in order to fulfill the
dreams of those who have gone before us. Negotiating and orchestrating
the means and methods for a promising future still lies ahead for today's
Albanian. There is no question that we have the energy, the will and all
the necessary aptitude to accomplish it. If it was possible in 1912 to
achieve difficult tasks in our awakening, it is certainly possible now to
proceed with the next, vital steps in attaining what all Albanians desire
for themsevles, for their families, for their nation and for the next
generation.       

       How grateful we all are today to be able to remember those days
and that time and to recall those extraordinary persons who gathered to
raise a rediscovered emblem and call it their flag. 


Very Rev Arthur E. Liolin
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