Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Second: Szombathely, Hungary
My Mom was teaching English in a college in Hungary in the mid-1990s and my wife and I went over and stayed about three weeks and travelled around Europe after. Of all the great things we saw, the one thing I remember the most is something I didn't see.
My mother just pointed down the street and explained the tall building on the right as a synagoque. She said that she had once been to a concert in there and that the building was basically used for that because there were no services held in it now. That floored me and I nearly dropped the bag I was carrying. I was numbed and I stood dumbstruck until my wife called for me to catch up. Just the night before I had stayed up and watched a movie that my mother explained as being about a war orphan who was taken in by an elderly Jewish man who was later marched off to a death camp. I spent most of the walk home thinking about going a concert held in there. No matter how beautiful the music was, I am not sure how much I would enjoy it. Although I could only imagine what it would have been like, the thought of it bore a hole into my soul.
Underneath the
joyous music,
a hollow
long chilly
crescendoing echo.
"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
Anne Coulter
"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it." Pat Robertson
I'm all for free speech, but why have these people become popular? And why do they both proclaim Christian values? And why don't we hear more condemnations from moderate conservatives about them?
"Right-wing kooks."
Isn't it
about time
the phrase came
back into daily usage?
My mother just pointed down the street and explained the tall building on the right as a synagoque. She said that she had once been to a concert in there and that the building was basically used for that because there were no services held in it now. That floored me and I nearly dropped the bag I was carrying. I was numbed and I stood dumbstruck until my wife called for me to catch up. Just the night before I had stayed up and watched a movie that my mother explained as being about a war orphan who was taken in by an elderly Jewish man who was later marched off to a death camp. I spent most of the walk home thinking about going a concert held in there. No matter how beautiful the music was, I am not sure how much I would enjoy it. Although I could only imagine what it would have been like, the thought of it bore a hole into my soul.
Underneath the
joyous music,
a hollow
long chilly
crescendoing echo.
"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
Anne Coulter
"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it." Pat Robertson
I'm all for free speech, but why have these people become popular? And why do they both proclaim Christian values? And why don't we hear more condemnations from moderate conservatives about them?
"Right-wing kooks."
Isn't it
about time
the phrase came
back into daily usage?
# posted by James Karkoski @ 6:08 PM 
