Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1986. július-december (40. évfolyam, 27-49. szám)
1986-07-24 / 30. szám
Thursday, July 24. 1986. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO 15. A VISIT TO BUDAPEST (cont. from p. 14.) products, railways. There were natural resources: coal, iron, gold. There was money to build." In Dezső Zrumeczky and Karoly Koos's zoo, or Odon Lechner's Applied Arts Museum, the power and the glory of Budapest Jugendstil are apparent - as are the Asiatic chords of Magyar feeling. Yet many of the most interesting buildings of this period are unsigned, unsignposted. The Gellert Hotel and Baths, finished in 1918 on the Buda shore of the Danube, was the powerful swan song of this ebullient age of building. Architecture in Budapest would not regain its wind again until a spate of rearmament prosperity in the late thirties. This period produced remarkably elegant Bauhaus apartment houses in Pest's Lipótváros neighborhood, now the tony place to live for those who snub the new rich ostentation of Rose Hill. Today the inside of the Gellert Hotel is perfect Socialist fifties. But the adjoining baths retain their original glory. The women's baths have undergone some tasteful restoration, but tne men's side is astoun- dingly intact. There are 123 thermal springs in this city, and there are baths still operative that date to the seventeenth-century Turkish occupation. The waters of Budapest reputedly sovereign for rheumatism - a reputation that draws thousands of guests a year to the recently built thermal hotel, on Margitsziget (Margaret Island), which is a strip of woodland in the middle of the Danube. In the Gothic Revival taproom of the Karpatia restaurant, downtown, hearty gentlemen of Budapest's prewar high society would stop for a little mid-morning dish of pörkölt, the stew we call goulash, to tide them over between breakfast and noon. It is a good place, still, to break a walk and take on nourishment. One can have pörkölt, paprikas, pig's knuckles, carp, pike, game in season, goose liver either hot or cold, or just some crackling biscuits with good draft beer-more palatable than the rather juicy ordinary Hungarian wine. Eat lightly if you can. For in the evening, you will be faced with the same rich array of temptations, each offered with over- generous garnishing, wherever you go. There'll be music , though, to help the digestion. Music in a Hungarian restaurant is no warmedover schmaltz for the tourist. JUST OUT! HUGÓ GELLERT MEMORIAL ALBUM of the great labor artist containing a representative selection of his finest DRAWINGS $4.95 Send your order with a check or money order for $ 5.95 ($ 4.95 plus $ 1.- for postage and mailing) to the Hugo Gellert Memorial Committee, 130 East 16th St. New York, N.Y. 10003. Also available at most progressive book stores. Star Wars vs. Arms Control A few weeks ago, the Reagan White House unilaterally renounced SALT II and, with it, abandoned any pretense that it seeks progress on arms control. It was a blunder so great it had to have been calculated. Overnight, our only safeguard against unlimited nuclear competition was stripped away. Leaving Star Wars as the proposed alternative. Star Wars, however, is no substitute for arms control. It’s a foolhardy gamble which could jeopardize our nation’s security for years to come. A strategic defense must be 100% reliable; it must work perfectly the very first time it’s used. The Chernobyl disaster, the Challenger explosion and the grounding of our nation’s entire space fleet should remind us that complex technological systems always carry a risk of failure no matter how “proven” they are. Star Wars’ reliability can never be adequately tested. For one thing, the actual conditions of nuclear war can’t be fully simulated. For another, a predictable rush by the Soviets to counter our defense at every turn will make it impossible to #2 in a series completely de-bug the complex computer software required to run the system. But the reliability question pales in comparison to an underlying conceptual flaw no technology can overcome: strategic defense is an offensive provocation. A shielded U.S. could, conceivably, attack with impunity—an untenable risk for the Soviets. To appreciate their logic, you need only ask how America would react to a Russian attempt to make themselves invulnerable. We can save ourselves a trillion dollars and decades of danger if we cease being distracted by science fiction and renew our dealings with reality now. Can we scramble back to safety? The answer next week. Union of Concerned Scientists 26 Church Street, Cambridge, MA 02233 Join our campaign for a rational arms control policy. We need your help to get our message out. Please write for more information. Thank you. "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning..." (Emma Lazarus) The Statue oj liberty Heroin of Freedom or of an Empty View! All the passion and pain felt by people fighting for their independence, to establish new nations in 1776-80's are embodied in this statue's symbols. (From the torch to the little known broken shackle of tyranny at her feet). True she is metal, and the life breathed into her creation has to be renewed in each generation, for liberty always has to be championed. Laboulaye, the mentor of this gift knew... saying that we must distinguish between power politics... and the genuine flow of sympathy with an affinity of aspirations between people. The American independence had just been won, France was fighting for hers. Because, the July 4th Centennial Celebration was coupled with the Ellis Island restoration, much confusion is occurring, and distortion of meaning by the Madison Avenue hucksters. As the article the Magyar Szo so well expressed, Liberty's torch must glow brightly both here and all over the world today. The deception and destruction of the promise in her name always.has to be exposed. Liberty has been an ageless yearning, the finest need of humanity, in the past, present and future! Lee Heimlich Augiu-te SaAtholcU EdouaA.de. de. LabouCaye Your comments about Today" will be appreciated. "Hungary
