“Being a good American citizen and a good Lithuanian is possible”. Anthony Olio talking

Abstract

The article briefly introduces US American politician, politician, lawyer Antanas Olis (1898-1958) and publishes two of his speeches to American Lithuanians: May 21st, 1949 speech at the inaugural congress of the American Lithuanian National Union (ALTS), and the last speech by Antanas Olis, broadcast on “Margutis” radio in the occasion of February 16th in 1958. Olis’s words are distinguished by tolerance, liberalism, and the promotion of the fundamental principles of freedom. Some of the problems raised by Olis nearly seventy years ago are still relevant today: how to stay a Lithuanian in a foreign land and not dissolve into a sea of strangers, how to entice young people to Lithuanian community activities, how to communicate between generations and interests, how to find balance between being a Lithuanian and a citizen of another country.