Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2000 (12. évfolyam, 44-47. szám)

2000-11-24 / 44. szám

AMERICAN Hungarian Journal MEDITATIONS by Dr. Bela Bonis Pastor (562) 430-0876 First Hungarian Reformed Church, Hawthorne There will be feasting on Nov. 23, in the name of a holiday. And quite properly, in accord with tradition and custom. But this is also a time for thanks, and that is the deeper tradition. Not one day only for thanksgiv­ing but a season of gratitude, for harvest, for work ac­complished, for life and the fur­ther opportunities that life will bring. A season of thanks that comes from deep within. For what were those first thanksgivers thankful? Not for plenty. Not for security. Not for ease or comfort. They were grateful for untilled land, for homes little better than hovels, for survival in a wilderness. They were thankful for each other, for companionship in a bold undertaking, for stout hearts and strong arms in a common cause. When the governor of Plymouth Planta­tion promoted three days of feasting in 1621, all was not right with his world. The past winter had been brutal and the wilderness unforgiving. Of the original 102 Pilgrims, 46 were dead, and some of the survivors were threatening a mutiny that could have caused all to perish. What William Bradford, the governor, and President Abraham Lincoln, who estab­lished Thanksgiving as an an­nual holiday in 1863, must have understood is that few things are more inspiring for people than removing their gaze from afflictions and focusing instead what is positive. Our thankful­ness for the good things we have received is always a bit soured by the sins and violence and horrors of existence. Gratitude to God requires that we live not by evading the real nature of existence, not by denying the violent character of nature and history, but by facing reality as best we can, finally affirming the whole life in all ist sorrow and pain as a great gift. In Ephesians 5:20, St. Paul does not use the word "good." His injuction to give thanks "always and for every­thing" confronts us with a dizzy­ing reminder. Thanksgiving is a word which, to have any meaning at all, re­quires the Biblical point of view. Apart from faith in god who meets us in the Bible, there is no valid reason nor real foundation for the giving of thanks. Genuine gratitude is the peculiar prerogative of God’s people. Of the many ex­pressions of thanksgiving in Scripture, please read at least 3: Psalm 104 and 107, and Ephesians 1:3-10. God bless your Thanksgiving Day! THE STATUE „GLORIA VICTIS" DEDICATED IN CALIFORNIA Speech by Ernest Könnyű to those assembled at the rally sponsored by the Bay Area Hungarian Freedom Fighters Association at the foot of the 18 feet tall bronze statue in the courtyard of the California Sate Building (on Van Ness), San Francisco, California. Speech date: Sunday, October 29,2000,2 P.M. The Legacy of the 1956 Hungarian Revo­lution and Its Meaning for Americans Here we stand today at the foot of this great statue called Gloria Victis, that is Glory to the Vanquished, a state of California memo­rial to the 1956 Hungarian revolution. I have come here today to memorialize those represented by this statue who were vanquished as well as those who lived through Communist terror and tell you why we as Californians and as Americans should care about those brave souls and their sacrifices on behalf of freedom. This year is the 1000-year anniversary of the founding of the kingdom of Hungary by Saint Stephen. And a proud anniversary it is. But let me take you back just 44 years to Europe, to the land of Hungary. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 ended on October 30 with full victory: the old Communist system crumbled and was gone, the Soviet troops withdrew from Budapest and started to leave the country, the multi-party democracy was restored. Prime Minister Imre Nagy formed a coalition based on the parties of the 1945-47 Parliament. Two days later that government decided to leave the Warsaw Pact, the political and military instrument of So­viet domination in Central and Eastern Europe, and, in a desperate attempt to forestall a new Soviet intervention, proclaimed the neu­trality of Hungary. The Soviet Red Army attacked Hungary on November 4, 1956, and crushed the legitimate government. Thousands of Hungarians were killed during the fighting or injudicial murders carried out by the puppet government of Janos Kadar. For more than thirty years the Ka­­dar-regime tried to break the backbone of the nation, ruled by repres­sion and mismanaged the economy. Facing total bankruptcy, in the summer of 1989 the Communist government surrendered and agreed to start roundtable negotiation with the opposition parties. At the end of September an agreement was signed. The peaceful transformation of the system was achieved. Eleven years ago, on October 23, 1989, a democratic re­public was proclaimed from the balcony of the Hungarian Parlia­ment, where thirty-three years earlier a revolutionary crowd de­manded independence and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. With the free elections held five month later, the process was completed, Hungary became a republic and a western-type parliamentary democracy. The bloodless revolution of 1989 in Poland and Hungary, unop­posed by the Gorbachev leadership in the Soviet Union, the break­through of the Iron Curtain by 800 East Germans on the Austrian- Hungarian border and the subsequent opening of the border by Hungary in September led to the collapse of the East German re­gime and the fall of the Berlin Wall. That in turn inspired the "Vel­vet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia, followed by the uprising in Romania at Christmas, and the surrender of the communist leader­ship in Bulgaria and Albania. By the end of 1991 the Warsaw Pact, and the Soviet Union itself was dissolved and all the captive nations of the Soviet Empire became free. We American-Hungarians have every reason to be proud of the historic role Hungarians played in 1956 and 1989. We should not allow it to be forgotten or overshadowed. In the last eleven years Hungarians showed that with independence restored and with a democratic constitution Hungary became a stable, increasingly prosperous country and a good partner for other countries, while helping three million fellow-Hungarians in the neighboring states. Of special note is Hungary's membership in NATO. As such, Hun­gary has become a reliable ally of the United States currently working to end the bloody regional conflict in the former Yugosla­via. Indeed, American and other NATO Air Forces' planes used Hungarian bases in their military bombing offensive that eventually brought the murdering Serbian president Milosevic to his knees and out of power. Today, Americans and Hungarians are working jointly in Europe against international crime and terrorism and for the rights of oppressed people. Yes! Let us note: America has a small but loyal friend in Hungary. So as we stand today in San Francisco, California, in the United States of America, I am proud to proclaim, that the blood of those who died 44 years ago was not spilled in vain. That the sacrifice of the 1956 freedom fighters of Hungary is bearing fruit daily in Hun­gary and in the Free World. Thank you freedom fighters. Thank you Magyars. (Ernest Könnyű is a Hungarian-born American residing in Saratoga, California, and is a former member of both the United States Congress and the California Leg­islature. Könnyű secured the funding and the location of the statue "Gloria Victis" from then Governor George Deukmejian while he was a state Assemblyman. ©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©<§>©©©©©© ©©©© Hungary To Sue Romanian Company Over Cyanide Pollution (AFP) Hungary plans to sue the Romania-based gold mining company Aurul for damages caused by a cyanide spill that devas­tated central Europe's principal rivers earlier this year. Hungary has claimed that the 100,000 tons of cyanide residue spilled at the Baia Mare-based gold mining complex killed some 1,200 tons of fish in Hungary alone, as it traveled along the Somes, Tisza and then the Danube rivers; affecting six countries. He added that to avoid similar accidents and "for the safety of Hungary, the government would like to see that such sources of pollution are shut down or are made safe" in Romania's northern Transylvania region. Hungary and Romania have agreed to pinpoint units potentially hazardous to the environment and have worked out a project to modernize them at a series of talks since the spill, he said. Hungarian lawyers said at the meeting that outdated technology at the Aurul mine were responsible for the spill, otherwise the cya­nide — a byproduct of extracting gold from ore — would not have reached the rivers. Hungary Will Meet EU Membership Requirements By 2002 BERLIN - Hungarian President Ferenc Madl said he was confi­dent the country would fulfill requirements to join the European Union by 2002, clearing the way for membership in 2003. Madl, elected in June, said on a two-day visit to Germany that his country had developed a strong democracy and a robust econ­omy, with annual growth of five to six percent each year and infla­tion under 10 percent. Unemployment has also dropped below six percent, he said. "We are an island of stability," he told a news conference. Madl, a fluent German speaker, met Friday with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and President Johannes Rau. He said the German leaders had told him that if Hungary succeeded in meeting EU membership requirements in two years, nothing should prohibit it from joining the union in 2003. András Schiff AT THE L.A. MUSIC CENTER (From Mark Swed’s review) Schiff... played Bach simply and res­pectfully... yet he drew in listeners with his singing tone, elegantly shaped phrases and exquisite contrapuntal detailing. Schiffs Bach seemed to tell us very directly and beautifully what was in the composer’s head. He tells us more about the composer than about his own personality. The remar­kable feature about his appearance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday is that he conveys those qualities to an orchestra as well. Schiff treated his role more like the leader of a chamber ensemble than a conductor. "Conducting" seemed al­most the wrong word; it was á process of interacting. The solo piano encore of Schubert’s Impromptu in G fiat was spellbinding. The statue "GLORIA VICTIS" dedicated in San Francisco, in the courtyard of the State Building on Van Ness on October 29, in commemoriation of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. 0 2000. november 24.maiii'MU 11

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