The Eighth Tribe, 1974 (1. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)
1974-04-05 / 1-2. szám
Page Fourteen THE EIGHTH TRIBE August, 1974 BINDING US INTO ONE Some sixty-seventy-eighty years ago humble, poor Hungarian men and women began a journey into a world they did not know. They had heard of its fabulous wealth, its opportunities, its freedom, its inherent greatness. They dreamed of becoming a part of that viril, young, progressive nation where the individual had a value such as it had no where else in the world. They longed to set their feet upon the shores of America. To achieve this they saved their pennies. Families polled their resources and sent one son who through honest labor earned enough to pay for the passage of another member of the family. Many a small farm, a humble home went to pay for the passage of those first pioneers who with their last penny, their utmost sacrifice paved the road for you and me in this country, America. Let us picture them as they came. Poorly clothed, carrying their meager belongings in poorly constructed satchels. Speaking no word of English. I have always had great admiration for those American pioneers who went into the unknown forest to carve the path for generations yet unborn and lay the foundation for a nation destined to lead the world toward better things. I have a great admiration for these humble men of peasant stock, who came from the security of their humble villages, leaving behind their loved ones to face a journey which to them was full of hardships and which demanded of them fortitude, bravery, the will to sacrifice and assume the hardest possible labor in a new, an unknown land. They began their task at the hardest chore. They were at a disadvantage from the beginning. They knew not the language, the custom of this country. They had to begin at the very bottom and work their way up by the sweat of their brow. They worked faithfuly, they worked gloriously. They worked to make your lot and mine happier, easier, more blessed. What was it that gave to these fathers of ours the stamina, fortitude and hope that carried them on in those difficult times? What was it that they contributed to the life of their community which made them respected of men wherever they built their homes? Their faith in the God of their fathers. The religion of generations past which was tried by fire and steel and which came out of the trials truer, finer, more invincible. These pioneers of ours brought no wealth in their purses. They brought the strength of their bodies and the faith of their souls and laid the foundation for your happiness and mine. Their first thought was to build for themselves an altar where they might worship their God. They organized and built churches. They gave their money, they labored with their bodies after work in the factories. They carried earth, crushed stone, pushed wheelbarrows, swung the pick. They were not ashamed to bring the sacrifice on the altar of God. They made their contribution to America not only in their labor of their hands, hut in that spiritual sacrifice they brought into the life of their community. They labored and sacrificed not for themselves, hut for their children. They lived in homes which lacked the most elementary comforts. The fathers labored in the factories and mines, the mothers bore children, kept the homes and cooked for the hoarders. Their days and nights were incessant hours of labor. Yet they labored gladly because they saw through eyes burnt with sweat the future of their children made happier, easier, better for the sacrifices they had brought for them. These very humble parents of ours, who in very few cases had more than six years of schooling, opened the doors of the schools of higher learning before their children. They made it possible for us to take our places in the battle of life on an equality with the children of other peoples and. if today we can hold our own with any man, we owe it all to these humble, faithful, self-sacrificing fathers and mothers who made us what we are, gave us what we have and dared to dream dreams of a happier future for us. The older I get, the more I have learned to appreciate our fathers. I am proud to own them as my own. They were men, unlearned in academic knowledge, but wise in the way of life. They possessed a faith which sustained them and can sustain us in the battle of life. 1 wish I could instill into you the felling 1 have in my heart when I think of the many children of these fathers who have turned away from the faith of their fathers. The children who have become unfaithful to the institutions they founded in this country. I feel very often that we may have gained much in material things, we may have completed courses in schools of higher learning, we mav have advanced much on the social ladder, but we have lost much that was our heritage when we permitted the religious fervor to die or grow weak which brought out the best in our fathers. When we deny the churches of our fathers, we deny ourselves. When we are untrue to the traditions they perpetuated fotus in religious worship, we deny the best heritage they gave us. We have a tradition to uphold. A tradition of faith,fulness ideals. A tradition of honesty, integrity, love of freedom, love of our country which gave us so much to be thankful for.
