Freedom fighter

We are going to transition from Vaiva's family photos to her myriad accomplishments. This will be complicated by the fact that much of the source material is in Lithuanian, which I do not read. Liepa has been entrusted with the archive, and she will be working with it this summer.

The 1990 Lithuanian re-declaration of independence was electrifying in our household. We were excited, then disappointed by the gross lack support offered by the American government (this was the Bush I presidency). Vaiva created the Lithuanian Resource Center, based in Hartford, to whip up support for independence, then she launched Americans for a Free Lithuania with a nationwide petition in support of independence.

Petition forms were sent to Lithuanian-Americans around the country, who eagerly went out to collect signatures. More than 100,000 people signed, the majority not Lithuanian-Americans. The Durham post office was overloaded with completed petitions, sent to a special post office box and addressed to "Free Lithuania Now!"

Liepa has posted below the letter sent to all Members of Congress. The result of that letter was an invitation to Washington, D.C. for Vaiva to explain the situation to Senators and Representatives.

Vaiva personally delivered the petitions Congress, meeting with members from both parties. I believe that Minority Leader Robert Dole took possession of them, and somewhere, someplace we have a photo of Vaiva with him on that occasion, that he autographed. I hardly know where to begin the search, unfortunately.

Oddly, the Bush Administration remained cool to Lithuania's fight for sovereignty. Happily, Bush II did not share that reticence.

We'll post more of the source material as we find it.