Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2005 (17. évfolyam, 2-50. szám)
2005-01-14 / 3. szám
ijfa n g a ria n J o u r n a l _________OBITUARY_________ TERESE RUDOLPH (7 August 1913 - 5 January 2005)______ Terry was born in Cleveland although she proudly pointed out to anyone who asked that she was conceived in Transylvania! Her family moved to Chicago in early childhood and she was raised and educated there. It was there that she also received her formal dance training and became a premier ballerina for the Chicago Civic Opera Company when she was 17. She performed with the ballet company throughout the early I930’s until she broke away to advance her dancing career as a solo performer. In 1937 Terry took her act to Shanghai, China. Travel for a single woman was not very common in that era but Terry was anything but common. On 14 August 1937 she was performing her act in the Cathay Hotel in Shanghai when bombs started falling all around her. She was reported missing and many feared her death during the bombing raid; however, she somehow made it safely out of the city and returned to the United States on the SS Hoover. She received considerable acclaim as the dancer who survived the bomb attack and opened in the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco with a new dance inspired by the attacked called “Shrapnel Swing”. She traveled throughout the US for the next few years as a headline dancer. World War II came along and Terry became a member of a USO troupe which entertained troops in the US as well as in the European Theater. She was entertaining in Paris when the allied forces formally liberated the city. Terry stayed in Europe after the war to be closer to her brother Julius, who lived in Europe and worked as an attorney for the US Army forces that were stationed in Germany. Julius urged Terry to interview for the position of Entertainment Director of the Casa Carioca, a military nightclub in Garmisch. The nightclub had an ice rink and performed ice shows as the primary entertainment. Terry was reluctant because she said she didn’t know anything about ice skating. At Julius insistence, Terry interviewed and held the position as Entertainment Director from 1949 until 1971. During those 22 years, Terry revolutionized the world of professional ice skating. She couldn’t skate but she was able to utilize her skills as a dancer to artistically develop the skaters who came to work and learn from her. It wasn’t long before her reputation as a developer of professional ice skating talent became known to the heads of all the major ice shows (Ice Capades, Holiday on Ice, Ice Follies) and they looked toward Terry to provide the talent that they needed for their shows. She was invited on numerous occasions to travel with the ice shows when they went on various tours. One of these that she was most proud of was a cultural tour through Russia in 1959 with the head of Holiday on Ice, Morris Chalfen, and his star skaters which included Dick Button. Terry and her beloved mother, Mama Rudolph, returned to the US in 1971 and Terry went into individual teaching. Among those she coached were world champions Tai Babilónia and Randy Gardner. She continued in that capacity until her health wouldn’t allow it any longer. Terry was an innovator who had a successful career as a dancer and achieved even greater success by developing the skills of others. She was small in stature but had the inner strength and perseverance to extract the best out of those she taught. Terry also had a generous nature and made numerous trips to Romania during her latter years to deliver clothes and food to less fortunate friends and relatives who were in need. Someone said that you can judge ones life by the number of lives that are touched and the good that is brought into those lives. If this is truly one of the evaluating factors then Terry had a full, complete and rewarding life. She will be missed by those of us who admired and loved her. HER MEMORY IS ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS! DUNA Travel 8530 Holloway Dr. #102 W. Hollywood, CA 90069 SPECIÁLIS ÁR LAX-BUD-LAX $395.- +tx. Információért hívják ZSUZSÁT TEL: (310) 652-5294 FAX: (310) 652-5287 1-888-532-0168 Január 14,2005 Gonzales Disavows Torture WASHINGTON - Attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales drew scorching criticism from Senate Democrats on Thursday for his role in Bush administration policies on the treatment of terror suspects. He repudiated torture tactics and vowed at a contentious confirmation hearing to abide by international treaties on prisoner rights. “I will no longer represent only the White House. I will represent the United States of America and its people. I understand the difference between the two roles,” President Bush ’s counsel told the Senate Judiciary Committee. His assurances did little to placate Democrats. “America’s troops and citizens are at greater risk” because of administration policies that are “tantamount to torture,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the panel’s top Democrat. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., told Gonzales that policies he supported or helped formulate “have been used by the administration, the military and the CIA to justify torture and Geneva Convention violations by military and civilian personnel.” Committee Chairman Arien Specter, R-Pa., portrayed Gonzales as a rags-to-riches success story, and said his committee would closely scrutinize his involvement in the crafting of a January 2002 memo he wrote on the treatment of enemy prisoners and his role in crafting presidential orders on detainee policy. Specter bluntly asked Gonzales: “Do you approve of torture?” “Absolutely not, senator,” he responded. Asked about the torture scandal at Iraq ’s Abu Ghraib prison, Gonzales said he was “sickened and outraged by those photos.” But he declined to give a legal opinion on the alleged abuses, suggesting he didn’t want to prejudice a possible criminal case if he becomes attorney general. At the White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush had “full trust” in Gonzales and hoped the Senate would “move forward quickly.” Despite the Democratic fireworks, Gonzales’ nomination was widely expected to be confirmed by the GOP-led Senate. And even Gonzales’ Democratic critics praised a life story that saw the son of Mexican immigrants rise to a justice on the Texas Supreme court to legal counsel to the president. “I want to make clear how inspiring your life story is,” Leahy said. “The road you traveled....all the way to the White House is a tribute to you and your family.” Governor Calls for Special Session to Tackle Reforms SAC RAMENTO — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger set out an aggressive plan for reforming state government Wednesday and called for a special session of the Legislature to tackle a list of proposals that could be put before voters in a statewide special election in early summer. Schwarzenegger used his second State of the State speech to urge the Legislature, dominated by Democrats, to “heal the patient” of state government. “Political courage is not political suicide,” said the Republican governor. “Ignore the lobbyists. Ignore the politics. Trust the people.” Schwarzenegger said the special session would start Thursday and would focus on his proposals to cut state spending if its grows beyond incoming revenues, limit the cost of pensions paid to the state’s public employees, pay teachers based on merit instead of tenure and change how California’s legislative and congressional districts are drawn. The governor said the special session would enable the Legislature to act quickly “so that people can vote on our reforms in an election by early summer.” Although many Democrats had been bracing for Schwarzenegger to take a more partisan tone in his remarks, the governor made it clear to the Legislature’s majority party that he expected action. “If we here in this chamber don’t work together to reform the government, the people will rise up and reform it themselves,” Schwarzenegger said. “And I will join them. And I will fight with them.” Missing from his speech, however, were details of how Schwarzenegger plans to fix a $8.1 billion budget deficit next year without raising taxes. Last year, an estimated $17 billion deficit was closed by spending cuts mixed with more than $7 billion in loans, one-time solutions and accounting gimmicks. While there remains $3.5 billion in voter-approved bond money that Schwarzenegger could use to close the gap this year, budget analysts have warned the state faces even bigger deficits in two years when the state has to meet several of the governor’s previous funding promises. The governor’s budget is scheduled to be released next Monday and he said Wednesday that the biggest challenge facing lawmakers and the administration is cutting the automatic formulas that generate spending increases even when revenues cannot meet the demand. Schwarzenegger said he would submit legislation in the coming days that would cut spending across the board when expenses grow above revenues. “Unless we go to the root of the problem and reform the system, the budget will continue to be one big fight, year after year after year,” he said. It is unclear, however, exactly how his legislation would work in the context of voter-approved funding guarantees such as Proposition 98, which dedicates about 40 percent of state spending to public schools. Changes to the school funding formula would have to be approved by the voters and likely to be fought by the state’s powerful education lobby. The governor’s call to revise how legislative districts are drawn is also likely to draw strong opposition. Schwarzenegger said as a new citizen of the country he was amazed to learn about “how politicians changed the boundaries of a voting area to protect themselves.” In November, Schwarzenegger said, not one of California’s 153 legislative and congressional seats changed parties. Schwarzenegger proposed giving authority for drawing districts to a panel of retired judges who “can draw fair, honest district lines that make politicians of both parties accountable to the people.” Schwarzenegger also took aim at pensions being paid to state and other public employees. He said that only four years ago, the cost of the state’s pension obligations grew from $160 million to $2.6 billion. He said he wants to change the retirement system so that new employees are required to manage their own pension in a defined benefit system. A state Assemblyman and taxpayers group announced Wednesday they were starting a petition drive to put a proposal creating a defined contribution system on the statewide ballot. Noting that nearly half of the state budget is spent on schools - many of which are failing — Schwarzenegger said teacher pay should be based on merit not on tenure. The governor’s plan also calls for the elimination of 100 unnecessary board and commissions, abolishing more than 1,000 political appointments. Schwarzenegger made a special point about eliminating cherished political patronage jobs: “No one paid by the state should make $100,000 a year for only meeting twice a month.” ENGLISH PAGE Advertise your business in the HÍRLAP, widely read by the Hungarian community!
