} - The figure of the assasin cast a deep shadow across the face of 1981. Three leaders were struck as a shocked world looked on. On March 30, President Ronald Reagan and three others, including press secretary, Jim Brady, were shot as the president emerged from a Washington hotel following an address to labor leaders. John W. Hinckley, Jr. was charged with the assasination attempt. Hinckley evidently planned to kill the president in an attempt to convince actress Jodie Foster of his love for her. Less than two months later, on May 13, with the trauma of the president's near death still fresh, a Turkish terrorist, Mehmet Ali Agea shot Pope John Paul II as he moved through the crowds in St. Peter's Square. The Pope recovered, as did two American women also hit by Agca's bullets. and the terrorist was sentenced to life in prison, the maximum under Italian law. The assasins were only too successful on- October 6, when the peace-making president of Egypt, Anwar el-Sadat was one of at least six killed as a group of renegade Egyptian army men fired their submachine guns into the reviewing stand at a military parade. ~ _ Greg York -- Solidar ity - more than just a labor union, it symbolizes the hope and passion of an entire people. I?oland in 1981 became perhaps I the principle focus of international attention. 1981 - the year that started out in growing liberty for the people of Pola~ d - a year that saw almost ~ million Poles quit the Commu ist Party, reducing its strength to only about seven percent f the population, and ~ year that ended with General Wojciech Jaruzelski leading martial-law government and combination folk -hero/labor leader Lech Walesa in "protective custody." It seemed inevitable in retrospect. As the government and solidarity struggled for control of the country's destiny, Poland was on the brink of total economic collapse . As the economy sputtered and falter44·World News , _ Wide World Photos ed, the lines for food and clo-thing and other basics became longer, more exhausting, more frustrating, especially as the unusually harsh winter began to bear down on the nation. As solidarity's extremists became more aggressive in the push for reform, the union and the government could no longer hope for an accomdating solution. And so, the generals mov- _ Wide World Photos _ Wide World Photos ed. perhaps to prevent direct Soviet intervention, perhaps out of their own sense of nationalism, perhaps on orders from Moscow. The courage and determina· tion of the Polish peop)e will not soon be forgotten by the world; they have taught us many lessons about the Brice of freedom. ~
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