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I took this snapshot in 1985 of a work of art in the courtyard of the main synagogue in Budapest. It was financed by American actor Tony Curtis, who has Jewish Hungarian roots. Aside from the aesthetics of this silver weeping willow, there are thousands upon thousands of silver leaves, each one bearing the engraved name of a Hungarian Jew who had been murdered in the holocaust. A far better photo of the sculture can be seen here. I have returned several times to Budapest over the years, and often to go to this memorial.
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During the 70's the RCMP Security Service intercepted and withheld my mail, they wiretapped my phone, they caused me the loss of employment, caused me to be evicted. All of this was smoking pistol documented. There is circumstantial evidence that they had set fire to my flat. They couldn't tell fact from fiction.
The Peoples Republic of Poetry and its caustic satire was better understood by poets and artists on the other side of the Iron Curtain, than in Canada. In the early 80's I developed many contacts with assorted dissidents.
Understanding that I spent my entire life enjoying freedom for free, I decided that it was worth taking the calculated risk to travel into the Warsaw Pact countries. My first trip lasted 3 month. I was doing a considerable amount of smuggling in and out as well as from one to another of the Warsaw Pact countries. I got arrested in Poland, guns pulled on me in Ceausescu's Romania, and other exciting phenom.
Canadians, an incredibly naive and sheltered people, often asked me why I was so anti-communist, especially in light of the fact that the RCMP did the same sort of things to me that is done on those totalitarian countries.
Well it took many years, but I was part of the MacDonald Royal Commission looking into RCMP activities. I was able to lobby for redress of grievance, obtain publicity in the media for my just cause. Try and do that in the countries outside the Free West.
The 20th century saw the defeat of National Socialism, and communism. The 21 century is now beginning with the theological totalitarianism is Islam. From what I can see of it now, the emasculation of Islam as embodied in the Ku Klux Koran, will be a greater challenge for freedom.
It is new to me, and thank you for posting those remarks. I especially liked, "Handouts to needy individuals are genuine, necessary responses to injustice, but they do not necessarily face the reason for injustice. And that is why so many business and governmental leaders today are promoting charity;..."
I will be taking this under my hat. I suspect it will gradually seep into my soul. I am cognizant that handouts can have the unfortunate consequence of perpetuating injustice, but this added nuance by Coffin adds some good meat.
Likewise, Bill, I highly appreciate your articulateness and point of view.
I'm moving to Cobourg from Montreal this coming weekend so my emailing will be interrupted. In Cobourg I can be spotted as the fatso riding a chrome bike.
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