Poland’s Tribute to the Sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence.

By

James Paul Zaworski

I was perusing the Library of Congress website yesterday, and I came upon this book, dedicated by the people and country of Poland in 1926, to the people and country of the United Stated of America on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 
It is an altogether historical, fitting, and touching national gesture from one country to another, from one people to another.

As a historian and anthropologist, and as a second generation Polish-American, I was touched personally, and professionally.  Though I am only half-Polish by ancestry, my father’s influence on me, and my family, tended to have us identify much more with the Polish half, culturally and ethnically, than the other half of my family (American going back three hundred years of British and Dutch stock).

Historically and culturally speaking, Poland is a country at the crossroads.  Despite being, geographically and culturally speaking, between the two, dominant powers of Germany and Russia, and despite being partitioned three times between Russia, Prussia, and Austro-Hungary, finally ceasing to exist as a political entity in 1795, the Polish people, language, and culture remained.

Poland, as a political entity, was re-forged in 1919, after World War I.  It would only remain viable for 20 years in this regard, before the “fourth partition” between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.  

Then ensued World War II, where Poland lost effectively 33% of its population, much of its land, and then had to suffer the indignity of being a Soviet satellite state until 1991.

In light of the historical context, this dedication and declaration in 1926 is even more poignant and meaningful.  Poland, declaring its admiration and dedication to the ideas of liberty, democracy, and freedom and rule by the people, openly did so and presented these 13 volumes to President Calvin Coolidge in 1926.  

My question is this:  did this fall on deaf ears in the United States at that time?  It would only be 13 years from this event to the German invasion of Poland.  America’s neutrality let the Polish people down. 

It would take the full mobilization of the United States after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and full participation in the war to defeat Germany.  But again, Poland was let down.  Hand over in a de facto meeting at Yalta, Poland, and most of Eastern Europe, was put under the Soviet sphere of influence.

 The fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent fall of all communist regimes, finally gave Poland the freedom it admired, and so desired, declared and dedicated in 1926 in this document. 

In the first pages of the declaration, the Polish heroes who fought for American freedom are mentioned:  Thaddeus Kosciusko and Casimir Pulaski. 

Today, Poland is part of NATO, has a western style democracy, and also has a thriving economy in the former Warsaw Pact/Soviet bloc.  The ties with the United States are stronger than ever. 

We need to remember history, so that we can allow this document to be remembered to help bind our two nations together even more closely, for the present and for the future.
Originally published on my regular blog:   http://jameszaworski.blogspot.com/2012/04/poland-stribute-to-sesquicentennial-of.html 



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A historical event.  
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I am proud of this man.  I believe he means well and has passed some historical legislation in the less than two years he's been president.  Whether or not you agree with him and his policies, his presidency may be a pivotal point in American history.  What the next two years will bring will be interesting.  I will be watching from outside the USA from China, or wherever I will be working.

 
Our Dependence on Oil Needs to End.The environmental disaster, known as the ongoing Gulf Oil Spill, should not just be a wake up call for the United States of America: it should be the start of the development of new energy technologies that wean us from our addiction to oil.

In 1973, the Arab Oil Embargo, imposed on the United States because of its support of Israel during the "October War", put the United States on notice that our dependence on foreign oil could hurt our economy.  I recall the long lines of cars waiting to fill up at the gas station.  The United States at that time made large, gas guzzling automobiles, my family has two eight cylinder Buick sedans and two station wagons.

What did the Arab Oil Embargo teach us?  Did we suddenly realize that our dependence on foreign oil threatened our economy, and our "national interest"?  Did we decide, then and there, that we should not only start building smaller, more fuel efficient automobiles?  Did we, as anyone with an ounce of common sense, conclude that we should explore alternative energy sources?

The answers are no, no, and no!

Instead, we started making bigger automobiles in the 1980s, SUV's come to mind.  We increased our dependence on foreign oil, particularly from the Middle East.  We did nothing to fund clean, alternative energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric and opened no new nuclear facilities.  We developed domestic oil sources in Alaska, and then spilled huge amounts of oil from the Exxon Valdez, up to then, the largest domestic oil spill in our history.

The Gulf Oil spill is a consequence of the failure of the past 40 years of the United States to wean itself from its dependence on oil, a finite resource, and not to develop alternative energy sources.

It seems to me that developing these sources is fully in our "national interest", for now, and for the future!
 
Abraham Lincoln is proof that genius can be entirely self taught: with no formal education, Lincoln read law, and practiced law; he read the great writers of the English language, from Chaucer to Shakespeare, from Washington Irving to Nathaniel Hawthorne, and it shows in his writing. How succinct, how poignant, how precise his words are in the Gettysburg address; the economy of words, the depth of meaning, sincerity, honesty; he had an incredible talent for the written word! Both inaugural speeches are also masterpieces; the second shows how his genius and craft evolved during the four moving years of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln is my favorite American President, and through his vision of what America should be, unified, one, without the institution of slavery, equal, made America what it now is. No assassin's bullet can take him away from us. To quote his friend Stanton, "He now belongs to the Ages". --James Zaworski, 2009

Posted by James Zaworski on January 5,2009 | 10:39 AM



http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/man-of-his-words.html