The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1955, Síða 15

EDITORIAL
One of tihe main objectives of THE
ICELANDIC CANADIAN is to help
to keep alive the Icelandic spirit and
Culture on the North American con-
tinent as a part of the ethnic hlencl of
Canadian and American cultures. The
desirability of the attainment of this
goal is well illustrated by three articles
in this issue and the FRONT COVER
POEM.
In the article OUR ICELANDIC
HERITAGE the Rev. S. T. Guttorms-
son enumerates and illustrates certain
qualities which, while by no means a
monopoly of our race, are the woof
and the warp of the Icelandic spirit.
They sustained the nation throughout
centuries of adversity, and enabled it
to survive in a hostile environment.
No more appropriate corollary
could have accompanied the Rev. Gut-
tormsson’s article than Lena Thorleif-
son’s A PIONEER. The qualities of
the Icelandic spirit exhibited by this
immigrant woman are the foundation
upon which the greatness of a nation
is built. ;
The article A PILGRIMAGE TO
NORSELAND by Dr. R. Beck is
permeated by that love of the land
and the people which has roots deep
in its stirring history, whose strength
and faith have builded a thriving
present upon the ruins of a capricious
past, and whose sure and steady gaze
envisions the golden dawn of the fut-
ure looming bright upon the horizon:
“Love thou thy land, with love far-
« brought
From out the storied Past, and used
Within the Present, but transfused
Thro’ Future time by power of
thought.”
Paradoxically, or so it may appear
upon superficial consideration, both
the strength and the weakness of the
Icelander is his intense individualism.
This same trait enabled the flowering
of the Greek spirit to reach its fruition
during the Golden Age of Greece, but
the resultant failure to co-ordinate
agencies and activities having similar
objectives led to the dissipation of
energy to which the subsequent de-
cline of Greek progress and power can
at least partially be attributed.
There are in Winnipeg and
throughout North America several
agencies whose objectives are similar
to those of THE ICELANDIC CAN-
ADIAN. It is axiomatic that the great-
er the co-ordination between them, the
greater their effectiveness in the ac-
complishment of transmitting to our
virile, young nations the heritage
which the aforementioned articles so
effectively portray. The history of.the
organized efforts undertaken by our
small ethnic splinter on this continent
has been characterized by a tendency
to “go it alone”. Even to-day the need
of greater co-ordination is obvious.
A. V.