Fraternity-Testvériség, 1956 (34. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1956-09-01 / 9. szám

FRATERNITY

3

COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS

Delivered in the Magyar language on August 19, 1956, at the HUNGARIAN DAY celebration sponsored by the United Hungarian Societies of Cleveland, Ohio — in connection with the

500th ANNIVERSARY OF JOHN HUNYADIS VICTORY AT NÁNDORFEHÉRVÁR (BELGRADE)

by Hon. Christian M. Ravndal, American Minister to Hungary Ladies and Gentlemen:

I was privileged some months ago to read an account of Cleveland’s epic history. I was taken back to a pioneer cabin at a fever wracked river and led proudly through some 160 years to the present world metropolis. I heard the crescendo of a welling hymn of praise as you discovered and revealed God’s blessings. The Master’s melody was being played by an ever-growing orchestra, and the new members were quickly and with sure instinct learning to play their separate parts in harmony, though they were 46 different nationalities. What an inspiration in a divided world!

And you Magyars, you Magyars who have always been able to live in harmony with many nationalities; you Magyars who have the gift of diplomacy in your drive towards progress; you Magyars who have the gift of vision and perceive the oceans awaiting your genius; you Magyars who for a thousand years have helped build towards the unbounded; you Magyars who have figured prominently in Cleveland’s glorious epic.

As one follows the history of your forbears, one can trace a sublime will to survive amidst years of unequalled tribulations, years that witnessed all but a few of today’s world powers as yet unborn or rising only to fall again under a strain less than Hungary’s ordeal.

One can detect unquenchable patriotism in the remark of a traveling companion, “We gave the Turks and the Austrians indigestion and they had to throw us up again. And so will all others repent who try to gobble us up. They will find they swallowed a hornet’s nest.”

One finds abiding faith in the validity of the golden rule. In Hungary the Church the Magyars have held on to and fought for for centuries is still functioning in all its pristine glory. I have attended religious services in many countries.