Vol. 47 No. 4 1980 - page 584

584
PARTISAN REVIEW
are waiting. I walk through the station. A young mother is carrying a
huge box of shoes, a sledge, and a big parcel. She stops, checks the time
of the departure of her train, and sits down on a bench. I sit down next
to her. I greet her and introduce myself. She must have missed the
name ... press, for she doesn 't look surprised.
In answer to my question she says: "Yes, somebody mentioned at
our place that there was something in the papers . But I don ' t know the
first thing about it.
If
those people would only keep quiet and mind
their own business!"
"Do you think that it's right for everyone
to
do only what's in their
own interest? "
"No, someone's got to perform civic duties. "
" I see. But suppose they don't do their job well in these functions.
What then? Suppose people are unjustly sentenced and unlawfully
persecu ted? ' ,
"You know what, young lady? I don 't understand these things,
and I don't want to," she replies.
I'm beginning to lose my elan. How many more like that shall I
meet? Sitting over there is a sensible looking middle-aged man. I sit
down next to him and introduce myself.
He asks: "You're from Bmo, are you?"
"No, no, Palach Press is an agency directed by Jiri Pelikan. "
"That's the first I've heard that something like that exists. Peli-
kan . .. oh yes, they 've got it in for him, like they have for Kohout,
Mlynar, and the others. But I don 't believe a word of it. The papers are
full of lies. "
"And what do you know about the trial on Spalena Street?"
"Are they holding political trials again? Like in the fifties? You
know, I don't read anything to do with politics; it only upsets me. I
read sports, that 's all. But if they're holding political trials again you
people outside should do something! "
"We do a lot but inside people are terribly apathetic. ... "
"That's true. But it's no wonder. They've all been given reason.
They're scared. And they think that any kind of resistance is futile.
That we are the plaything of the great powers. We are weak.... "
"We are small and weak, enough of that. Do you know who wrote
it? People keep referring to it, and a few of the stronger ones have to
remind us that we're not weak. I think people ought to get together.
Every nation has to liberate itself through its own forces ."
"My dear girl, those are merely fine words. I'm a skeptic. And I
know life, believe me."
"It's an easy way out, you know ," I add.
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