Local Hero

When Harvard announced last month that it had invited Lech Walesa to be Commencement speaker, some people were more impressed than others, and among the more dispassionate was the Warsaw Communist daily Trynbuna Ludu. According to United Press International (UPI), last Friday's Trynbuna Ludu had this to say about Walesa's invitation and the subsequent confusion:

"In April a new thing appeared. Radio Free Europe announced that Walesa accepted the invitation of Harvard University where he is supposed to hold a speech. . . However, on the same day in the evening, RFE hastily announces that contrary to the previous announcement. Walesa decided not to accept the invitation. The UPI adds that in a telephone interview Walesa says that he cannot leave Poland (surely it will collapse without him. . .)

". . . So we have everything there is on the person of Walesa, his 'hard situation in Poland,' and this speech to the poor knowledge-hungry professors and doctors of Harvard. In its own way it's interesting what this learned group of scholars would like to learn from Walesa, who in an interview with Oriana Fallaci said with pride 'he had never read any book to the end.'"