The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1959-10-16
JOSEPH BREIC-
Listening
Between Words

In his TV talk before departing from America, Kru-
shchev delivered what amounted to a Commute COM
mercial for communism.
The soothing Tilt Of the translator's voice came
close to make it a singing commercial.
Khrushchev did not call communism communism.
He called it socialism.
The reason is obvious enough. The word 'con1-
munlSm" is loaded with memories of crimes against
humanity, justice and religion.
One of Khrushchev's purposes was to make us for
get those denominations, and to beguile us with cam
paign promises of a childish heaven on earth.
THE GENERAL EFFECT of his sales pitch was
that everything would be ducky if only we would let
the Krenlin turn the earth into a kind of asylum for
the supplemented, with us as inmates and the bosses
of communism as keepers.
In this neverneVer- land, everybody would be
housed, fed, clothed, ~schooled, medicined, put to bed,
got out of bed, worked a little, vacationed a lot, and
eventually old-age-homed - all under the benign die
tatorship of the pr~oletariat operated by Grampa Khru-
shchev & Co. with the CHEEKY help of Papa Moa Use
Tung, as demonstrated in Tibet.
| wonder what the advertising chaps were think
ing as they listened to Cramps KhruShchev. In their
commercials, they promise a lot, but they are not
free to promise everything.
Khrushchev promised everything.
BUT WAIT A MINUTE - not quite everything.
he offered everything except the right of a man Tor
Woman) to call his soul his own.
Khrushchev said that apartment buildings are
going up all over in Moscow. But he did not say that a
family under communism can own its own home, or
lock the front door, or sleep at night without fear of a
government agents knocking in the wee hours. 1t can't.
G0OQ ola Il SAID the Russians are DeLter fQ every
year. We hope they are. But he did not say that a
farmer could have his own farm, or that a housewife
could shop in a store not operated by the Kremlin.
He said the Kremln pays for schools. He did not
say that anybody could choose a school.
HE SAID THAT if a Russian needs an operation,
the government pays. He did not mention that the Rus
sian goes to the doctor he is ordered to go to, whether
or not he considers the man competent.
jolly old KhruShcheV assured us that pretty soon
there won't be any taxes in the Soviet Union. He neg
lected to mention that not long ago, the Kremlin con-
fiscated the savings of people-after forcing them to
save in the first place and that whatever you buy,
you buy from the government, at prices set by the
government, with the wages the government allows
you to have.
Kindly old KhruShchev forgot something. He for
got that we are not children who have never reached
the age of reason. If we were all simpletons but
we aren't.
KHRuSHcHEV thoughtfully avoided the word
Communism" After all, he's our ~grandpop now. He
doesn't want to pain us with memories of Hungary.
Or of workers fighting tanks with paving-Stones in
East Germany.
He told us about devastation and death in Russia
during World War II. But he didn't mention "commu-
nism'' because we might remember that World War IL
started with a pact under which Hitler invaded Poland
from the west while Stain invaded it from the east.
The Great Red Father, with touching solicitude,
wanted to spare us thoughts of the enslavement of
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Albania, Czecho-
slovakia, Bulgaria. He protected us from visions OF
the millions who fled from communism in Korea and
Vietnam, and of those who lost hands or feet - or
their lives crawling through mined border, areas,
thoughtfully provided to keep them inside the social
list paradise. Oh, well we got the message anyhow.