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Last November, this site celebrated its fourth anniversary… another way of putting that is that we’re now in our fifth year of operation. Yet another way of seeing it is that we’ve greeted five New Years… 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, or, that we’ve been around during six calendar years… 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. To put that into perspective, over the same period, oca.org has had three different editors… Matusiak, Jarmus, Matusiak (again), and Lil’ Mizz Ginny Nieuwsma (the last is only a lick-spittle sock-puppet of Lyonyo, so, she hardly counts). That’s to say, its editorial policy hasn’t been consistent, to put it charitably. It explains its clueless editorial direction and its fawning hagiographical reportage. There’s not a single REAL journalist working on that site. On the other hand, Vlad Legoida’s patriarchia.ru is a crack and competent workmanlike site. The news is posted as soon as it happens and future events receive the advance notice that they deserve and need.
If I have any models, it’s RIA-Novosti and VOR, with a generous dash of KP thrown in for good measure. Besides, I do my best to keep “news” and “editorials” well separated. If it says, “editor’s note”, its “opinion”; if not, its usually straight news. Occasionally, I get nastygrams from hyperclericalists. Let’s keep it simple… no one’s forced to kiss the clergy‘s collective arse. That’s what some want (I’m thinking of a loud and obnoxious priest from Philly who posts on the Orthodox Forum). The ONLY time that priests are “owed” “respect” is when they’re serving and vested. THAT’S IT. Then, you’re respecting the office, not the bozo who may be wearing the vestments. In Old Russia, the married priesthood was a subset of the peasantry (that’s why so many priests urged some of their sons to become army officers and civil officials in Imperial Russia… it raised the family’s social status)… and that’s that. In both New Rome and Russia, the clergy were liable under the ordinary civil law, and they could be beaten publicly for their crimes, JUST LIKE ANY OTHER PEASANT. WOW… I think that all of the lower-grade priests are now angry at me for saying that, and they’ll sic their loyal retainers on me. So be it… I’m going to say what’s true and real, and I don’t care about the fall-out.
I’ll tell you why I have that attitude… I know that blozos like Piggy Iggy Burdikoff, Ray Velencia, Gregory Jensen, Peter Gillquist, John Braun, Pat Reardon, Victor Potapov, and Wsewolod Drobot are only PART of the picture. There ARE nasty priests… there ARE corrupt and venal apparatchiki amongst them. That’s true… but its also true that there are good priests out there, men who don’t get any publicity… men who don’t get their pictures on websites or who don’t get the “choice cuts”. That’s why I fight… these men are silent, not because they’re cowards or poltroons, but because they, all too often, serve under bad and/or incompetent bishops who muzzle them and reward the undeserving. As a priest-friend wrote me once, “As a laywoman, you can speak the truth. I’m a priest… I’ve got to be diplomatic and I’ve got to obey orders. You… keep on speaking up… we need it”.
That’s why this site keeps on “keepin’ on”. I’m going to write the truth to the best of my ability… for that’s what you want and need. I’ll support every honest good guy and fight every corrupt bastard that comes my way. I don’t think that I’m alone…
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Sunday 1 January 2012
New Year’s Day
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
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