Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1984. július-december (38. évfolyam, 27-48. szám)
1984-09-06 / 33. szám
Thursday, Sep. 6. 1984. 11, AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO ».Reagan Bombs VOTE FOR SURVIVAL By John B. Oakes -------------------—— — ..................................................................................................................................... A Nationwide Call to Action "It is essential in this dangerous nuclear age that everyone participate in this democracy by voting. I urge all citizens to learn the facts, know the positions of the candidates for electoral office, and vote with your informed judgment. Your vote can help to prevent nuclear war.” loanne Woodward Chair. National Women s Conference to Prevent Nuclear War T he increasingly reckless nuclear arms race can bring only one end: the wail of sirens and the incineration of us all. From September 12th, National Women’s Day of Action to Prevent Nuclear War, through October 4th, National Voter Registration Day, Americans everywhere will join in a climactic nationwide campaign to stop this perilous weapons buildup. We ll do this by working to elect leaders who will press for a nuclear freeze: an immediate halt on both sides to all testing and deployment of nuclear weapons. HERE’S WHAT TO DO: • Xerox this flyer, post it, and pass it on! Joanne Woodward's call to vote for survival must reach every American! ^ • Find OUt how to register to vote in your area, and get hold of voter registration forms, MOW jf available. Call your city or county government for information. • Display a 3-color vote for survival bumper sticker and button • To order one of each send $1 plus a self-addressed stamped envelope to Women s Peace Initiatives 212 1 Decatur Place Washington D C. 20008 For ten of each, send Allow four weeks for delivery • Tell everyone you know or meet to register by October 4th and vote for Sept* Survival on November 6th. Discuss the threat of nuclear war with friends, family, neighbors, -i Oil coworkers, classmates, your grocery store clerk. Urge everyone who shares your concern to ■■■“*'** register and vote. Another good way to register voters is to set up a stand with a "Vote for Survival " thru banner at a nearby shopping center, hospital waiting room, or bus stop. (Note: half of eligible Americans are nonvoters! You'll easily find ten. Young people and those who have recently moved 'r'l* are especially good prospects.) 4tn • Write down the names and phone numbers of all unregistered persons you encounter. Call and remind them to register by October 4th. ^[®y* • Call the people you've persuaded to register and remind them to vote on 3til November 6th. Arrange help in getting to the polls for anyone who needs it. Join with citizens around the nation—women, men, and children—in this national period of action. If one million of us register even two new pro-freeze voters each, we can decide the November election outcome. Do your part to save this planet! ACORN • Americans for Democratic Action • Coalition fora New Foreign and Military Policy • Council for a Livable World Environmental Action • Federation of Professional Women's Organizations • Freeze Voter "84 • Greenpeace USA In the Public Interest • Jobs with Peace • NAACP • National Association of Colored Women's Clubs National Campaign to Stop the MX • National Education Association • New Jewish Agenda • Peace Links Professional's Coalition for Nuclear Arms Control • Project Vote • Riverside Church Disarmament Program • SANE SERVE • The Children's Foundation • Union of American Hebrew Congregations • Unitarian Universalists Association (D C. office) Women's Equity Action League • WILPF • Women's Peace Initiatives • Women Strike for Peace • Women. USA Bernie Kaye; Bartók & Monk The tasteless "joke" Ronald Reagan dropped while testing his voice prior to a radio broadcast a few days ago strips away his protective cover of press agentry and reveals him naked to the American people. What Ronald Reagan's little joke reflects is an instinctive feeling that the only good Russian is a dead Russian, which is a rather dangerous sentiment to be boiling along under the Presidential skin in this hair- trigger age. What it also suggests is an innate lack of any sense of Presidential responsibility, a failure to recognize that every word and gesture of the President of the United States has the power to move the world. It's a "couldn't care less" approach that is becoming increasingly evident with the President's advancing years. Not even his worst enemy would seriously claim that President Reagan would think, on reflection, that bombing the Russians is a joking matter. But what gives pause is that he would make such an idiotic statement wihout reflection. That is the key to the alarm felt in every corner of the globe as a result of Mr. Reagan's offhand (and theoretically off-the-record) comment. If this kind of remark could spring from him on the spur of the moment, what kind of reaction could be expected of him in a real crisis where decisions affecting the survival of the world might have to be made in a matter of minutes? What confidence can the American public have in a man of such shallow, rash and superficial judgment, especially one who has given increasing evidence in recent months of a growing inability to cope with the realities of domestic and foreign policy? From the most aggressive jingoism in Central America to his total confusion over tax policy; from the grossest fantasies on population control to his repeated dissimulation on arms control; from his sudden interest in the environment after sabotaging it during the first three years to his sudden concern for the working poor after sabotaging them for the first three years, President Reagan shows less interest in the substance of government than in his own ideological image. He seems to believe that his flag-waving, moralizing religiosity can be a substitute for the thoughtful deliberation of which he is evidently no longer capable - if he ever was. In a recent incident at Mr. Reagan's ranch, a reporter asked him a question about the prospects for talks with the Soviet Union about controlling weapons in outer space. He smiled; his wife prompted him, and he mindlessly repeated the vacuous phrase she had supplied. When a President comes to that .on a subject such as this, it's time to call it quits. If Mr. Reagan's closest advisers were sincerely interested in protecting the President as well as the Presidency, they would recognize that he is not up to running the White House for four more years. They would urge him to withdraw before the election (rather than after it, as some observers predict he is likely to do). If, however, the Republican Party does succeed in propping him up through the election, and if this is the kind of president the American people choosem then we should be singing in the next four years not "God Bless America" but God Help America. ................... ............... The title of the class was "Piano Styles from Chopin to Gershwin." The teacher was Orin Grossman, Professor of Fine Arts and forty Elderhostelers found a new way to listen to music. The professor was not only an expert piano player, but a music historian. What he played was analyzed, in its relation to the time it was composed, what the composer was trying to do, and how it compared with his other work. He did this with jazz selections as well as classical. Most of us were not used to jazz being treated as serious music. We were amazed to find, that we enjoyed it. It was stressed that jazz is the only pure American music, and is respected more abroad, then at home. He then proceeded to play a selection from a Bartók Concerto followed by a piece from jazz musician, Thelonius Monk. It was intriguing to find that both pieces were similar in construction, phrasing and style. As several of us agreed afterward, it was the first time we_ really enjoyed Bartók. Readers of Magyar Szó know that he started his musical education by taking a recorder to the Hungarian villages to set down their melodies and songs. Monk didn't have a recorder, but he went where his people practised their rhytms. And he had a good memory. Professor Grossman will give a concert at Merkin Concert Hall, October 9th. I know a lot of Elderhostelers will be there. Note: Elderhostel is an arrangement available to people over 60 to spend a week at a university with subject of their own choosing. Cost is nominal.
