When Congress declared October as Polish Heritage Month in 1986, it was responding to the requests of hundreds of thousands of Americans of Polish Heritage to recognize the contributions of Poles throughout history and, especially, Poles in America.
It started in 1609 with early settlers Robert and Mathew, “Polonians,” who sought religious freedom and arrived with Captain John Smith; was highlighted by the valiant and determinative work of Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Casimir Pulaski, both of whom came here to fight for our liberty in the War of Independence from Britain; and was followed by thousands of Poles who emigrated to America running from the tyrants of Europe. Our heritage is chock-full of the creative, inventive and history-altering examples of the Polish ethic: “Work hard, do good.”
In our lifetime we have seen the foundational commitment to liberty and freedom expressed by Lech Walesa and Pope John Paul II, who helped crush Soviet totalitarianism, and modern Polish families supporting the freedom and independence of Ukraine.
The struggle for freedom and liberty runs deep in our veins.
Our American founders knew to their core that liberty was, literally, worth dying for. Our Polish ancestors knew it from centuries of domination by foreign powers, no less recent than the Communists who controlled Poland with an iron fist until freedom lovers in Poland threw them out.
Our current Polish families and friends have stood strong against the cruel and illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What explains it? A core and fundamental belief, expressed in writing by bishop/lawyer/philosopher Wawrzyniec Goslicki, who in 1568 wrote a well-respected and well-known treatise (in its Latin translation) on the virtues of government that actually serves the people, and who wrote that the happiness of a nation’s people is the reason that government, in whatever form, exists in the first place.
Poles have a historic gut instinct for freedom and independence. We fought subservience against the czars of Russia, the kings of Prussia, the Nazis and the tyrants of Communism.
We know what independence is; and we know what the opposite is: a dark, evil and slow death.
That gives Poles and Polish Americans the energy to fight against oppression, and it is one of the finest reasons to recognize Polish Heritage Month.
Aurelia Pucinski, Illinois Appellate Court Judge
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Ignore Trump’s crude remarks
I have been reading and enjoying Lynn Sweet’s column for many years; I always look forward to her incisive reporting and commentary on the political scene. But this week Sweet stooped to the level of the circus the GOP has devolved to in its slavish devotion to a monster, by devoting an entire column to Donald Trump’s utterance concerning the size of the late golf legend Arnold Palmer’s penis (“Arnold Palmer’s penis size is latest Donald Trump talking point: This could be the next president”).
The number of vile remarks that have traveled from the sewer that is the mouth of Trump in the past eight years would choke a brontosaurus. Must every bit of it be regurgitated for us? At this late date, does Sweet — or anyone — truly believe that there remains a single voter whose decision will be reconsidered based on Trump’s latest crudity?
Rob Hirsh, West Ridge
Joe Biden’s impaired
Letter writer Daniel Welch wrote, “If anyone’s father or grandfather exhibited the cognitive impairment of Donald Trump, their heart would break, and then they would sit down with their family to discuss where the best place for their loved one was.”
Funny, but I read the letters carefully every day and don’t remember this letter about the cognitive impairment of Joe Biden.
Bill Hartman, Barrington