Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1986. július-december (40. évfolyam, 27-49. szám)
1986-08-28 / 32. szám
10. TTtursday, Aug. 28. 1986. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO WEST LIGHT Cont from p. 9. it to its knees. It was ridiculous to think that, he knew now. Ridiculous but natural. Young as he was, Michael would be thinking those thoughts now; dreaming of a life. A life without the two old people who invited him in and gave him cookies. Painful but natural. "When I was a girl I used to stand on the fence and watch the trains and I would wish that one of them would come and take me away. I would wonder and wonder where it might take me. And I had such a feeling of greatness in my stomach." "I know", he said, "I had that feeling too. Coming across on the boat. Brave new world." "But so terrible sometimes, and lonely." "There's been good; the two of us." "Yes. I used to love how you would unbraid my hair at night, then run your fingers through it." He looked as if he was blushing. She smiled, then broke off - "Memories, we've been here all afternoon, living on memories." "But they're real memories, of things we've done. Proof that we've lived." "And proof that we're still living." She stopped twisting the fringe on her shawl and said, in such a child-like, open way that it made his throat dry, "Do you feel like you're old. Inside, I mean?" He toyed with his eyeglasses. "No, not inside no." He paused. "Well, neither do I. Every time I catch rqy reflection in a mirror or in a window I always do a doubletake and say to myself, who is that old woman?... And it's me... it's me, your rose." As her voice trailed off he put his glasses on quickly, to hide his eyes, and said softly, "You're still my rose, Eva, you are." She was crying now and he reached his hands across the table. At his touch she drew in a deep breath and nodded; wiping her eyes with her free hand and letting out a little laugh, "Look at me... Look at us, sitting here trying to talk about our life and our old age. It's hopeless. How can we try to make sense of things that even we don't understand yet." "We've lived," he said, "and little things still make us happy. Like reading the newspaper together, drinking coffee, having Michael visit us, even if he doesn't anymore." "Will he think of us when he's grown?" "Sure, he'll tell his wife about this little old grandmother who used to make him cookies." "And how the old grandmother's husband never had any good books for him to look at." They both laughed. "Do you want a cookie?" she asked. "You made them for Michael." "I made them for my little boy," she said as she stood up, "and you're the only boy left for me now." She filled a plate with the crescent cookies and, walking to the table, pulled her chair over next to his. It seemed to her that the cookies smelled of the evening- scented honeysuckle that he had once planted at the base of their mailbox. Over the years it had grown and crept up the pole onto the box and around the fence. Yes, the cookies smelled of honeysuckle. They sat silently, his hand on her thigh, eating and watching, reflected in the west light on the side of a neighbor's building, the shadow of 2 squirrels playine.in a tree. When he kissed her, he smelled roses and she felt dizzy and imagined that they were in the grass, in the field, by the railroad tracks. 6 Problems With The Contras BY GEORGE MCGOVERN Since leaving the United States Senate in 1981, I have not once tried to influence the judgment of my former colleagues. But I urge them now to re-examine their support for the "contra" war against the people and the Government of Nicaragua. I recognize the tendency of senators to give the President the benefit of the doubt on foreign policy question. But in this instance especially I would urge the Senate to heed the instincts of the American majority, which coincide with world opinion. Consider these facts: 1. / Virtually no other government anywhere in the world supports the Reagan Administration's policy of backing the contras militarily. 2. / The World Court has ruled that the Unites States is in violation of international law on several counts in Nicaragua. It is true that the Administration did not accept the rulings of the World Court in that case, but most of the rest of the world did. 3. / How do senators explain to their constituents or to themselves or to history that our Government officially recognizes and maintains an embassy relationship with the . Sandinista Government we are "covertly" trying to destroy? If the Sandi- nistas are as bad as the Reagan people claim, why do we recognize them at all? Why pay for an Ambassador and staff to conduct official business with a Government that we are paying other agents to sabotage? 4. / Mr. Reagan refers to the contras as "freedom fighters". But don't the senators know that most of the contras were recruited by the C.I.A. from the former ranks of the hated Somoza National Guard? These are for the most part the same despised characters that the people of Nicaragua were revolting against when they joined the Sandinista revolution. The contras neither know freedom nor have any record of practicing it. They are largely a bunch of bullies similar to the death squads that we are inadvertently associated with in El Salvador. They are not advancing freedom; they are killing innocent people, blowing up homes and runnings drugs. Have the senators really taken a hard look at these bums we are asked to bankroll under the banner of opposing Communism? 5. / Mr. Reagan would have us believe that by backing the contras we are combating Soviet and Cuban Communism. But are we not doing just the reverse? It was the tyranny and misrule of Somoza and his henchmen that created the conditions that gave Communism its opportunity. People who are well governed and fairly treated don't turn to Communism nor do they require mercenaries to carry on their struggle to advance freedom. Cannot the Senate see that Mr. Reagan is discrediting America, and playing into the hands of its enemies, by allying himself with the most hated killers in Nicaragua? The Sandinistas are not perfect, but they are a vast improvement over Somoza and the contras. Nothing that we or the Russians do is going to decide the fate of Nicaragua. Nicaraguans and Latin Americans' traditions will determine the fate of Nicaragua for good or ill. But if the Administration and Congress are determined to increase our huge deficit by sending American tax dollars to Nicaragua, they should send them to the Sandinista Government that we officially recognize, not to the contra outlaws trying to destroy that Government. 6. / Finally, I ask senators to consider that every public opinion poll indicates that a majority of the American people do not want their Government to become militarily involved with the contras in Nicaragua. Apparently many of the same people who voted for Mr. Reagan disagree with his war by proxy in Nicaragua. At least one poll revealed that a majority of Americans do not know which side we are on. For 10 years as a Senator, and also as a nominee for the Presidency, I anguished over our disastrous involvement in Vietnam. Only history and Providence will know finally who was right or wrong on that tragic issue. But in my long Congressional service there is one aspect that gives me the greatest pride and the most lasting satisfaction: I followed my conscience and my best judgment on Vietnam. That is what I plead with my former colleagues to do with reference to Nicaragua. Eighth Marriage of Zsa Zsa LOS ANGELES (AP) - Zsa Zsa Gabor has made her eighth trip down ^ie aisle to marry a West German in a ceremony that yvas boycotted by her mother and sister Eva. Miss Gábor wearing a lavander and white off-the-shoulder go'vn, and Frederick von Anhalt of Munich, 43, who says he is a prince by adoption, e- inged vows in the living room of the bride's home in suburban Bel- Air, said publicist Beth Herman. Miss Gabor's daughter by hotelier Conrad Hilton, Francesca Hilton, addressed the crowd before the ceremony: "We're all here this evening because we care about my mother and we care about her happiness." The only members of Miss Gabor's family at the wedding were her daughter and her sister, Magda Gabor. Her other sister, Éva Gabor, and mother, Jolié Gabor, bycotted the ceremony, the publicist said. The Hungarian-born actress stopped the ceremony at one point, ordering invited photographers to stop taking pictures because "you're making me nervous". The newlyweds planned to go to Europe for their honeymoon, where Miss Gábor was also to film a movie about composer Johann Strauss.
