Monday, January 31, 2011

Irony in Hungary

Thanks to the vision of Sen. J. William Fulbright, who conceived a scholarly exchange program that now bears his name, I will be spending this spring semester in Eger, Hungary, teaching on a Fulbright award. I confess that only recently have I come to know a little bit about Sen. Fulbright (which, owing to the fact that he died in 1995, puts me way ahead of his knowledge of me). Sen. Fulbright's senatorial career spanned thirty years (1945-1975), during which time he distinguished himself as, among other things, a committed multilateralist. Hence, in 1946 he proposed that the United States fund a program that would disseminate scholar-emissaries throughout the world in an attempt to bridge differences and build understanding between countries and cultures, and, no doubt, to help polish the world's esteem for the U.S. Sixty-five years later his mission is going strong.

Less to his credit (at least by the lights of most people I know), Sen. Fulbright was also a segregationist, and opposed the passing of President Johnson's 1964 civil rights legislation. And that makes my Fulbright award ironic, in that when I asked my host institution in Eger, Esterházy Károly College, what they would most like me to teach in their American Studies program, I was told “your Civil Rights Movement.” Which makes my Fulbright award even more ironic, because it has only been through researching to teach the course that I discovered Sen. Fulbright's segregationism. And so ends the story of Irony in Hungary.
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Thanks to JW, Uncle Sam, the Magyar Republic, Eszterházy Károly College, and my University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, for the next five and a half months I will be exploring Hungary as, I assume, Hungary will explore the U.S. (through me), and I have created this blog so that over that time I can share with you some of my experiences, observations, opinions and so forth. Perhaps more ironies, too.

As blogs sometimes turn into bogs, to prevent that here I am going to post just once a week, on Friday (even though today is Monday). I hope you'll return then.

Vislát! (Hungarian for “See ya!”)

Jerry

Little known fact: barack is Hungarian for peach or apricot.
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownJanuary 31, 2011 at 5:47 PM

    Who could resist being the Very First to respond to your blog, Jerry? Certainly not I.
    As for the substance of your observations, though I agree that Our Mutual Benefactor should have voted for the 1964 Civil Rights legislation, remember Tip O'Neill's observation that all politics are local--and it really wouldn't have done anyone much good had Fulbright alienated his Arkansas's constituency when he must have known the legislation would pass anyway. And don't forget, as Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he went on to become a vigorous anti-War exponent in the early 1970s. In fact, when I met Nixon visiting Ireland that year and told him I was there on a Fulbright, he visibly recoiled at the mention of the name. ANYWAY, just thought I'd throw that your way--along with word that you need not worry about missing the weather in Massachusetts. Cheers -- Richard

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