Keeping the Faith
Scully, Matthew
KEEPING THE FAITH Harlem During his tenure as Riverside Cathedral's "minister for peace and justice," the Rev. Erik Kolbell had seen itinerant peacemakers come and go, but none so distinguished as...
...It was not a pleasant moment, but the clod had it coming...
...There followed a question-and-answer period "to which Daniel has graciously consented...
...You may recall Brian...
...others shouted triumphantly...
...Only Daniel himself could hold back his emotions...
...Matthew Scully (Mr...
...The Rev...
...A third began: "As an activist in the anti-imperialist struggle . . . " And so on...
...Here was our chance to ask the tough questions—respectfully, of course...
...Lucius Walker, here was "one of the great teachers of democracy for North America...
...The day humanity no longer lives for its utopias is the day humanity no longer exists...
...He's the inspired young man who "1,077 days ago" unsuccessfully tried—with his legs—to stop a train carrying nuclear weapons from a California naval base...
...Erik Kolbell had seen itinerant peacemakers come and go, but none so distinguished as tonight's speaker...
...Thankfully, all comported themselves admirably...
...Or about the media's lies that Daniel is living in a confiscated mansion and making a killing on imported cars by pocketing the taxes on them...
...Brian announced that the caravan had made it...
...Even the aging activist who stood up at collection time waving a check and yelling "I give a thousand dollars' got only a polite half-smile...
...You could feel a tension in the room: Might one of the fifty or so people waiting at the microphone be a troublemaker...
...And: "The question is how to build socialism," since "Eastern Europe is in no way comparable to Latin America...
...No "friend of the poor and oppressed" was passed over, except the One in whose house we were gathered—but, well, the speeches were running on, and a few names had to be cut...
...Just what a "progressive hospital" might be, or what would befall a sick person who showed up at a reactionary hospital, were questions best left for another day...
...Two particularly forward solidaristas even approached for a kiss, stepping right past the security guards surrounding the altar...
...ambassadors from Cuba and Vietnam, who graciously rose on request to accept applause all around...
...We welcome into this sanctuary a man who dared to challenge an illegitimate authority, and did so armed with nothing more than the simple knowledge that he was right and they were reprehensible...
...Or about teenage boys being tortured under internment...
...Or about the mass graves at former Sandinista "sanctuaries" that are now being dug up almost daily...
...I give you . . . the distinguished Comandante de la Revolucion...
...It was unclear just who or what would have prevented the caravan from "making it," but, in any case, Brian and the others had eluded them all, and would soon be distributing supplies to progressive churches and hospitals...
...Hence, "Revolution must continue from below...
...Then came a tape-recorded progress report from Brian Willson on the "peace caravan" bringing supplies to the Sandinistas in Managua...
...There was a spontaneous uproar as Daniel Ortega entered...
...Another: "Comandante, how can we deal with the disinformation and/or lies about Nicaragua in the U.S...
...if only we would listen...
...As another treat, this very night we were joined by our friends the distinguished UN...
...media...
...Comandante," asked one, "how can the revolution be preserved despite the criminal power of the U.S...
...Would an otherwise splendid evening be marred by a question about irregularities in last February's elections...
...As the Teacher departed, one of our beautiful utopians, a woman of about fifty, began scolding an over-eager cameraman who had stepped up on a pew for a better angle: "Don't you know this is a church...
...Indeed, added the Rev...
...There was something almost unsettling in his bearing, something which—if you didn't know Daniel better—you might have mistaken for contempt...
...Scully is assistant literary editor of National Review...
...i Viva la revolucionlor sang...
...All two thousand people present whistled, cheered —iViva Ortega...
...22 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1990...
...finally, the moment arrived and el Comandante rose to the pulpit: "Democracy should not be limited to the casting of a ballot," he declared...
...Another presented a beret bearing the insignia of her cause, the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Movement...
...Erik reminded us of all the other "friends of the poor and oppressed" who were here "in spirit," including Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, and the persecuted Puerto Rican nationalists cruelly jailed four decades ago merely for unloading a machine gun from the visitors' gallery in the House of Representatives...
...The caravan made it...
Vol. 23 • December 1990 • No. 12
