On October 24, 1985, 24-year-old seaman Miroslav Medivid leapt from the deck of a Soviet freighter into the Mississippi River near New Orleans. Medvid told Border Patrol agents who took him into custody that he opposed his country's Communist government and wished to defect. But for reasons that remained cloudy -- and over the vehement objections of North Carolina senator Jesse Helms -- the Reagan administration decided that the poor man should be returned to his ship. Whereupon, so far as anyone in the West was able to determine, Miroslav Medvid simply disappeared.
Until last Tuesday, when Medvid, now a Catholic priest, paid a grateful visit to Helms's office. Back on board the freighter, Medvid explained to Helms, he twice tried to kill himself -- knowing what was in store for him back home. Upon his return to his native Ukraine, Medvid's fears were realized: He was adjudged criminally insane, incarcerated in a "mental hospital," subjected to electric-shock "treatment," and prescribed psychoactive "medication." Released shortly before the fall of communism, Medvid entered the seminary. He now ministers to a small parish in the Ukraine.
Someday soon, THE SCRAPBOOK hopes, Sen. Helms will receive a similar visit from Elian Gonzalez.