Magyar News, 1992. szeptember-1993. augusztus (3. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1993-01-01 / 5. szám

Volume 111, Issue 5 ^^B H Bridgeport, Jan. 1993

Magyar News

Monthly Publication in Cooperation of the local Hungarian Churches & Organization

A WONDERFUL BEGINNING FOR THE YEAR TO COME

For the past 45 years we worked very hard through radio, newspapers, personal witnessing before the various United States Senate Sub-committees and the Human Rights committee of the State Department to destroy Communism in Central Europe. By the grace of God the Communist Regimes were toppled one after the other in a relatively bloodless transformation. A new leaf was turned in the pages of history. The time has arrived to reverse our strategy, and instead of opposing, to joyously help rebuilding the homeland of our ancestors. The new year which is at our doorsteps bids us to summon our energies for this new constructive work.

It was in this spirit that I gladly endorsed the suggestion of Mrs. Jacquelyn Durrell, First Selectman of Fairfield, to accept the town of Tatabanya, Hungary, as our sister city.

The offer came to us through Attorney Maria Tomasky of Fairfield, whose relatives are members of the city council of Tatabanya. With the offer came also an invitation to participate in the re-dedication of the Turul Monument, which is located on a hill above Tatabanya, and can be seen from the main highway between Vienna and Budapest.

Tatabanya was throughout this century the foremost coal mining place in Hungary until the mines became completely depleted in recent years. During the heyday of the mines the town prospered enormously and built very fine apartment buildings and an excellent infrastructure. As the city of

83,000 inhabitants expanded, it incorporated into itself three villages, Felső Galla, Also Galla and Banhida. It has become the social, cultural and educational center of the region. Tatabanya has 14 High Schools. Only two of them are humanistic, like our High Schools in Fairfield, the others are commercial, industrial, technical and musical High Schools. There is one Administrative College in town also, in which the knowledge of the English language is a requirement. One of their professors is from Connecticut. In the music High School the so-called Kodály method is taught, whereby students learn to read music the way they learn to read a book. There are two Reformed, one Lutheran and three Roman Catholic churches in town, with very active leaders and congregants. The City Council is composed entirely of young men and women, headed by the twenty-nine year old Mayor, who is a graduate of the Roman Catholic Seminary. The Turul Monument

that looks down upon the city with its enormous wing-span of 42 feet is not only the symbol of Tatabanya but of the entire Hungarian nation. It is a mythological bird that our ancestors brought with them from time immemorial. For the ancient Hungarians it was a symbol of eternal life. This was the common symbol of many ancient people. We read in the book of Isaiah: "They who waitfor the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be wary, they shall walk and not faint." The Hungarian nation walked, or better said rode under this symbol from the Ural to Pannónia, the way Hungary was called by the Romans, in strong solidarity. So the Turul bird became also the symbol of national solidarity, which bound the seven original tribes and all the other tribes that joined our nation throughout history into a strong and everlasting unity. When the Hungarians entered Hungary in 896, it was exactly in Banhida, Tatabanya today, where our leader, Árpád, besieged the armies of the Moravian Svatopluc. It is therefore fitting that the national monument of the Turul bird be placed in this city.

The re-dedication ceremony took place on Sunday, November 29th, with the participation of President Árpád Göncz, of the

Hungarian Republic, many of his ministers and ambassadors of foreign countries, among them Ambassador F. Thomas of the United States.

Our delegation from Fairfield, First Selectman Jacquelyn Durrell, Mr. Richard J. Durrell, Attorney Maria Tomasky and myself, was placed among the invited dignitaries and received a truly royal treatment. For the week that we spent in Tatabanya, we visited the schools, the college, the mines, the museums and the neighboring cities, among them Estergom, the seat of the Roman Catholic Primate of Hungary. Of particular interest was our visit to the old castle of Tat, the fortress of the Csak family, which withstood the Turks for decades, though it changed hands nine times, the Castle is still standing and has been turned into a beautiful museum.

I also had the privilege to take to Hungary a very generous offer to build a Hospital for Heart S urgery in Buda, at the Veteran Home on Kútvölgyi ut, in the amount of 5 million dollars. The President of the Republic received me personally in his Parliament Office and put me in touch with the Minister of Health and Welfare, and with several members of Parliament who are on the national health committee. I was also able to free the Heart Screening Equipment, worth $700,000.00 that was in storage in Budapest since March, due to government red tape. The cardiac care was terribly neglected during the Communist regime. The mortality and morbidity rate is extremely high in Hungary. The Hungarian-American Hearth Foundation which was started here with the visit of the Cantamus Musical High School of Nyíregyháza a few years ago, is very actively involved to remedy the cardiac care. The offer of a new hospital for this purpose was understandably received with great joy.

Tatabanya offered us ten scholarships for High School students who would like to spend a year in Hungary. The Business College offered a full scholarship for a Hungarian-American student. All schools would like to institute teachers exchanges to bring closer our two communities.

This was a wonderful beginning to strengthen the ties between the United States and Hungary. I am very hopeful that the New Year will bring us closer together. What we could not bring about in the past, will be fulfilled in the New Year and the many New Years to come.

Rev. Dr. Alexander Havadtoy