Magyar News, 1994. szeptember-1995. augusztus (5. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1994-10-01 / 2. szám
IN 1956 THE SPIRIT WAS HIGH AND IT IS STILL FLYING Hungary 1956 memorial monument in Norwalk Whenever you spend part of your life doing something, let that be creative work, just routine, or a commitment to a cause, you stop from time to time to evaluate what was done. You take a look at the success, the value it generated and the direction it is taking. You want to know if you are on the right track and you are serving the goal that you originally set ahead of you. To put it in other words you want to be sure that you are doing the right thing. Some people get involved in a cause they didn’t quite understand. Or they did things unwillingly in the process. It might happen that circumstances were stronger than the ability of a person. As a conclusion you might regret it for the rest of your life, or, you search for every reason to justify it, or, you would do it over again without hesitation. Well, put yourself into the shoe of a “56- er.” They uprooted themselves, left behind everything they had ties to. Many members of the immediateorextended family, friends, the place they lived in, the way they lived, their joy and their sorrow, the language they spoke, the land they loved, the world as they knew it all became an imprint in their memory. It ceased as it is, they can’t reach out to it, they can’t touch it, they can’t beapartofit. In 1956 they left Hungary and went to places they might not have chosen, places that didn’t have any resemblance to what they had imprinted in their memory. No family, no friends, no language. Naturally some did regret uprooting themselves, some did it partially, and others did not regret it at all. The uprooting was a result of the hurt that existed under the Soviet occupation and when in 1956 the hope of freedom was squashed the hurt came back stronger, and many Hungarians just had to pack up. Some because they were fighting the Soviet, many because they had enough, they couldn’t cope any longer. The hurt was too much and there was no light showing at the end of the tunnel. Those Hungarian refugees who found their way into our existing local Hungarian communities received enough support to help them sort out their problems. As time went by they noticed that there is a faint little light at the end of the tunnel. They realized that the Hungarian Revolution was not a futile effort to bring changes. Experts in the field of political science noted that this Revolution had far reaching resolutions. Just take a straight line from the Revolution to the collapse of the Stalinist Communist dictatorships. You should know that the highest Soviet representative, in Hungary, in 1956 was Andropov. Somehow he found the Hungarian demands acceptable and voiced his opinion in the Soviet Union. During the fast changes in the Soviet leadership, Andropov became the head of the state, though only for a few months, because of his sudden death. He laid the ground for his personal protege, Gorbachev to become the new head of the Soviet Union. And, this brings everything into the present political picture. Affected by the spirit of ’56, changes were made in Hungary, and also, Hungary helped other European countries to shed the dictatorships. The spirit of ’56 prevailed in the heart of the refugees and American- Hungarians. They didn’t give up the hope continued 1969 June l.Rev. Martin Tornallyay, Mrs. Magda Ivanyi, Stevan Dohanos, Mayor Zullo and Rev. Dr. John Butosi, as it appeared in The Norwalk Hour.
