Fraternity-Testvériség, 1961 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1961-02-01 / 2. szám
FRATERNITY 5 WHAT EVERY YOUNG AMERICAN MUST KNOW There has been a great deal of talk lately about children and grandchildren. It comes down from the highest places and is picked up by no end of secondary authorities on the Cold War, fiscal policy and the shape of civilization in the future. We believe that this new style in the speech of statesmen was begun by Chairman Khrushchev. If our memory serves us right, it was back in 1957 that this folksy Russian and irrepresible politician engaged certain American reporters in conversation and got off approximately the following: “I do not think that you will ever be Communists. Your children will probably not become Communists. But your grandchildren will be Communists.” Khrushchev fancies the mantle of the prophet. This is entirely natural Communism is secular prophetism. It is taken up with immediate history as the great Hebrew prophets were in the 8th century B. C. and later, only from a totally different standpoint. The Communist denies God and inserts man as an urgent activist who has the mission of rushing history as fast as possible toward its foreordained goal. The folksy concentration on grandchildren serves the purpose of making Communist faith and hope vivid. It underscores the seriousness of the spectre overshadowing mankind and the long drawn character of the struggle between Freedom and Totalitarianism. The image of playing children as an overlay on the Cold War screen has another value. It brings home the fact that a new generation will surely inherit the unfinished task of throwing back tyranny and extending freedom. Everything will depend upon the knowledge and the wills of the persons now our children and grandchildren. It is they, and not we, who must confound the prophecies of Khrushchev. A part of our burden, and our privilege, is to see well to the training of young Americans. There is no more crucial task than this. It will require wisdom, vision, patience, determination and the love which is the opposite of softness. Training is by learning and by doing. How we do depends heavily on what we know. The first business of education is the imparting of knowledge. A revival is already under way in American education of emphasis on science, mathematics and languages. This is all to the good, but more is needed. This more is the inheritance of all Americans and must be transmitted in appropriate measure to all, and not merely to the gifted. The most neglected field in the current curriculum of education and life is ethics. Ironically, it is what the Founding Fathers of our Republic regarded as most fundamental, and they firmly believed that it could not be separated from religion. The first thing that every young American must know is the reality
