As a recent business traveler and tourist to the Soviet Union, along with cherishing a Lithuanian-American heritage, I feel strongly motivated to respond to Mr. Gorbachev`s proclamations that Lithuania`s unanimous parliamentary vote for independence is ”illegal and invalid.”
What could possibly be ”illegal and invalid” about the democratic will of a people who not only never desired to join the Soviet Union but who fought subjugation by Moscow violently from 1945-1952?
All of the United States voted to enter the United States of America. Lithuanians never voted to enter the Soviet Union; in fact, only force has determined that Lithuania be called a part of the Soviet Union. Thus, the catch-22: It voted itself ”out” but was never really ”in” with any democratic definition. Now Gorbachev says it can`t vote itself ”out” even though it was never really ”in.”
