Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2001 (13. évfolyam, 2-43. szám)

2001-02-16 / 7. szám

AMERICAN Hungarian Journal MEDITATIONS Reagan Quotes by Dr. Bela Bonis Pastor (562) 430-0876 First Hungarian Reformed Church, Hawthorne The Marine Coips used to have a slogan which went: 'The Marines are looking for a few good men." After a while it was amended to add a few good women, too, but the message was the same. The Marines were looking for quality people to fill their ranks. The subtle implica­tion was that not everyone could or would meet their standards. If you wanted to be a Marine, you had to be something special. Jesus is always looking for dis­ciples, but what kind of people does he want? Sometimes I think the church sends the wrong message. Jesus isn’t looking for perfect people to be his followers; quite the contrary. He preferred the company of sinners - tax collec­tors, fishermen, and the like. He seemed to choose people who were more likely to be impressed with God and God’s grace than with themselves. He wanted (and wants) people who had nothing to lose - except their empty lives and everything to gain - their true lives - when Jesus asked them to leave every­thing and follow him. Surely Peter encountered the holy God when he fell down among all those fish on the shore of Lake Genesaret. (Read Luke 5:1-11) Like Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-8) he said, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Like Isaiah, he needed reassurance. The seraph told Isaiah that his guilt had departed and his sin was blotted out; Jesus told Peter not to be afraid. Both men were called to become spokespersons for this holy God. As Isaiah responded, "Here am I; send me!" so Peter and James and John "left everything" and fol­lowed Jesus. Discipleship meant not merely "acceptance" but transformation. Peter the fisher­man would become a passionate believer and a religious leader, who would turn the world upside down by means of a message, the gospel. The secret lies in the net with which Jesus’ "fishers of people" will make their catch. We don’t mend, tend or haul the net; rather, by God’s grace we become the net. God does the mending and the morning-by­morning encouragment and direction of would-be catchers who have fished all night and come home empty. Yet no night is completely lost that finds us washed up on the shore, face to face with Jesus who once bor­rowed Peter’s boat to use as a pulpit, the one who has no day job, really, except to love us. If you want people to believe in God’s grace, pick a forgiven sin­ner to tell them - he or she is more believable than anyone else. From his earliest days as a public speaker to his final days in the public eye, Ronald Reagan never made a speech that didn't in­voke America's greatness. Often anecdotal, the speeches covered any number of topics — the economy and the Soviets were two fa­vorites -- but no matter the subject, the message remained consis­tent: America was "a shining city on a hill," and its promise, as well as its people's, was boundless. June 1952 (from a commencement address at Williams Woods College, one of the oldest surviving speeches of Reagan's) "I, in my own mind, have always thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land. It was set here and the price of admission was very simple: the means of selection was very simple as to how this land should be populated. Any place in the world and any person from those places, any person with the courage, with the desire to tear up their roots, to strive for freedom, to attempt and dare to live in a strange place, to travel halfway across the world was welcome here." October 27, 1964 (from his nationally televised speech, which he called "A Time for Choosing" but was later simply referred to as "The Speech," in support of candidate Barry Goldwater) "If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what's at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no secu­rity anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. October 27,1964 (from "The Speech") "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of dark­ness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done. January 7,1970 (in an interview with the "Los Angeles Times") "Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence." March 31, 1976 (from his "To Restore America" speech, in­cluding references to his experiences during the Depression) "No one who lived through the Great Depression can ever look upon an unemployed person with anything but compassion. To me, there is no greater tragedy than a breadwinner willing to work, with a job skill but unable to find a market for that job skill. Back in those daik depression days I saw my father on a Christmas eve open what he thought was a Christmas greeting from his boss. Instead, it was the blue slip telling him he no longer had a job. The memory of him sitting there holding that slip of paper and then saying in a half whisper, 'That's quite a Christmas present,' it will stay with me as long as I live." Ruling Party Admits Partner's Troubles are a Headache BUDAPEST (AFP) Hungary's ruling Fidesz party admitted that ballooning scandals in the ranks of its junior partner, the Inde­pendent Smallholders' Party, posed a problem for the government The Smallholders' Party has been involved in allegations of corrup­tion and misappropriation of funds since October, provoking calls from the opposition and the third coalition party for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to intervene. "The problems of the Smallholders create a problem for the coalition," said Fidesz head László Kövér, who has been the official head of the party since the post was separated from that of the prime minister last year. However Fidesz "cannot have a role in solving the Smallholders' problems," Kövér told journalists after the Fidesz presidium finished up a two-day session to discuss the party's strategies ahead of the 2002 elections. He added that crisis of the Smallholders meant that it was currently impossible to discuss a potential election cooperation between the two parties. Fidesz said last year it would nominate some joint candidates with the Small­holders for the 2002 vote. But he said that a split in the Smallholders' Party - in which six of its 48 deputies left the Smallholders' parliamentary group - did not currently affect the majority of the government coalition. "I have no reason to think that we’ll fail to retain the parlia­mentary majority needed to implement the government's program until 2002," said Kövér, affirming that Fidesz would soon sign a formal accord on cooperation with the MPs who left the Smallhold­ers' Party. Hungary Must be Self-Reliant to Join EU BUDAPEST (Reuters) Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called on Hungarians to be self-reliant as they progress towards membership of the European Union. "We don't have neither relatives in Brussels nor American uncles," he said in his annual speech on the state of the nation. "We can rely only on our work." Hungary, a top candidate to join the EU later this decade, began market economy reforms after the collapse of Commu­nist regimes in eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s. Orbán said the painful reforms, which created large social dif­ferences, began to yield results in 1999 and the country's robustly growing economy is now showing the signs of a rapid increase in living standards and a decline in poverty. He said his center-right coalition, which took power in 1998, based family support on tax allowances instead of an earlier system of equal subsidies to every­one. Hungary has been able to turn around a trend of increasing poverty and is now on the right track to join wealthy states, Orbán said. As the joint result of economic growth and the new family sub­sidy system... poverty has been decreasing, he said. A continuous increase in tax allowances to families and a sharp rise in the mini­mum wage to 40,000 forints ($141.8) this year from 25,500, herald a better life for Hungarians. The economy is on a path of annual growth rates above five percent, despite losses worth almost $3 bil­lion suffered last year due to record floods, a surge in global oil prices and a weak euro, Orbán said. "The year 2000 was the most successful year of Hungary since 1990," he said, adding that after a sharp fall in the jobless rate to six percent Hungary may face the problem of a labor shortage if a fall in the number of the population continues. Orbán said his cabinet should focus efforts to accelerate a much­­needed reform of the health care system after a slowdown last year, and to modernize the ailing agricultural sector. The government will prepare an agricultural reform plan in the first half of this year to strengthen family farms, he added. Mary Tyler Moore Against Lowering Legal Hunting Age ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Westchester County’s most famous TV mom is taking on Governor George Pataki’s proposal to allow more teenagers to hunt big game. Mary Tyler Moore, who gained fame in the 1960’s sitcom "The Dick Van Dyke Show" that was set in the Westchester County town of new Rochelle, is supporting an effort by The Fund for Animals to shoot down Pataki’s proposal even before it formally reaches the Legislature. The measure would lower the age to legally hunt deer and bear to 14 from 16. Young hunters would have to complete the state’s 10-hour hunter safety course and hunt with a parent or have written permission from a parent to go out with another licensed adult. The government should not be in the role of promoting and placing firearms in the hands of children,” Moore, who now lives in New York’s Dutchess County, said in a letter released last week. "Basketballs, baseballs and books are a much better alter­native." 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