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Getting poorer

Poverty is on the increase, inequality — not based on personal effort — but systematically driven is on the increase. Those who have are fewer and fewer, those without are increasing, and those in the middle are on a downward spiral. What is the proper faith response? Where are the strong calls to justice and prophetic witness?

From the U.S. Census Bureau: Poverty

The data presented here are from the Current Population Survey (CPS), 2011 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), the source of official poverty estimates. The CPS ASEC is a sample survey of approximately 100,000 household nationwide. These data reflect conditions in calendar year 2010.

  • The official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent — up from 14.3 percent in 2009. This was the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points, from 12.5 percent to 15.1 percent.
  • In 2010, 46.2 million people were in poverty, up from 43.6 million in 2009—the fourth consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty.
  • Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites (from 9.4 percent to 9.9 percent), for Blacks (from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent), and for Hispanics (from 25.3 percent to 26.6 percent). For Asians, the 2010 poverty rate (12.1 percent) was not statistically different from the 2009 poverty rate.
  • The poverty rate in 2010 (15.1 percent) was the highest poverty rate since 1993 but was 7.3 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available.
  • The number of people in poverty in 2010 (46.2 million) is the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.
  • Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for children under age 18 (from 20.7 percent to 22.0 percent) and people aged 18 to 64 (from 12.9 percent to 13.7 percent), but was not statistically different for people aged 65 and older (9.0 percent).

From the AP via Yahoo!: Behind the poverty numbers: real lives, real pain

At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears.

She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem.
“It’s like there is no way out,” says Kris Fallon.

She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America’s abundance. Last week, the Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans lives in poverty — a record 46.2 million people. The poverty rate, pegged at 15.1 percent, is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse before it abates.

The numbers are daunting — but they also can seem abstract and numbing without names and faces.

Associated Press reporters around the country went looking for the people behind the numbers. They were not hard to find.

There’s Tim Cordova, laid off from his job as a manager at a McDonald’s in New Mexico, and now living with his wife at a homeless shelter after a stretch where they slept in their Ford Focus.

There’s Bill Ricker, a 74-year-old former repairman and pastor whose home is a dilapidated trailer in rural Maine. He scrapes by with a monthly $1,003 Social Security check. His ex-wife also is hard up; he lets her live in the other end of his trailer.

There’s Brandi Wells, a single mom in West Virginia, struggling to find a job and care for her 10-month-old son. “I didn’t realize that it could go so bad so fast,” she says.

Some were outraged by the statistics. Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund called the surging child poverty rate “a national disgrace.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., cited evidence that poverty shortens life spans, calling it “a death sentence for tens and tens of thousands of our people.”

Overall, though, the figures seemed to be greeted with resignation, and political leaders in Washington pressed ahead with efforts to cut federal spending. The Pew Research Center said its recent polling shows that a majority of Americans — for the first time in 15 years of being surveyed on the question — oppose more government spending to help the poor.

“The news of rising poverty makes headlines one day. And the next it is forgotten,” said Los Angeles community activist and political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

Such is life in the Illinois town of Pembroke, one of the poorest in the Midwest, where schools and stores have closed. Keith Bobo, a resident trying to launch revitalization programs, likened conditions to the Third World.

“A lot of the people here just feel like they are on an island, like no one even knows that they exist,” he said…

From Robert Reich writing in the Christian Science Monitor: What you won’t hear about during the 2012 election: Why progressive ideas like wage increases and medicare won’t be mentioned during presidential debates

We’re on the cusp of the 2012 election. What will it be about? It seems reasonably certain President Obama will be confronted by a putative Republican candidate who:

Believes corporations are people, wants to cut the top corporate rate to 25% (from the current 35%) and no longer require they pay tax on foreign income, who will eliminate capital gains and dividend taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 a year, raise the retirement age for Social Security and turn Medicaid into block grants to states, seek a balanced-budged amendment to the Constitution, require any regulatory agency issuing a new regulation repeal another regulation of equal cost (regardless of the benefits), and seek repeal of Obama’s healthcare plan.

Or one who:

Believes the Federal Reserve is treasonous when it expands the money supply, doubts human beings evolved from more primitive forms of life, seeks to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and shift most public services to the states, thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, while governor took a meat axe to public education and presided over an economy that generated large numbers of near-minimum-wage jobs, and who will shut down most federal regulatory agencies, cut corporate taxes, and seek repeal of Obama’s healthcare plan.

Whether it’s Romney or Perry, he’s sure to attack everything Obama has done or proposed. And Obama, for his part, will have to defend his positions and look for ways to counterpunch.

Hence, the parameters of public debate for the next fourteen months.

Within these narrow confines progressive ideas won’t get an airing. Even though poverty and unemployment will almost surely stay sky-high, wages will stagnate or continue to fall, inequality will widen, and deficit hawks will create an indelible (and false) impression that the nation can’t afford to do much about any of it – proposals to reverse these trends are unlikely to be heard.

Neither party’s presidential candidate will propose to tame CEO pay, create more tax brackets at the top and raise the highest marginal rates back to their levels in the 1950s and 1960s (that is, 70 to 90 percent), and match the capital-gains rate with ordinary income.

You won’t hear a call to strengthen labor unions and increase the bargaining power of ordinary workers.

Don’t expect an argument for resurrecting the Glass-Steagall Act, thereby separating commercial from investment banking and stopping Wall Street’s most lucrative and dangerous practices.

You won’t hear there’s no reason to cut Medicare and Medicaid – that a better means of taming health-care costs is to use these programs’ bargaining clout with drug companies and hospitals to obtain better deals and to shift from fee-for-services to fee for healthy outcomes.

Nor will you hear why we must move toward Medicare for all.

Nor why the best approach to assuring Social Security’s long-term solvency is to lift the ceiling on income subject to Social Security payroll taxes.

Don’t expect any reference to the absurdity of spending more on the military than do all other countries put together, and the waste and futility of an unending and undeclared war against Islamic extremism – especially when we have so much to do at home.

Nor are you likely to hear proposals for ending the corruption of our democracy by big money.

Although proposals like these are more important and relevant than ever, they won’t be part of the upcoming presidential election.

But they should be part of the public debate nonetheless.

That’s why I urge you to speak out about them – at town halls, candidate forums, and public events. Continue to mobilize and organize around them. Talk with your local media about them. Use social media to get the truth out…

John Gray’s essay from the BBC: A Point of View: The revolution of capitalism

Karl Marx may have been wrong about communism but he was right about much of capitalism, John Gray writes.

As a side-effect of the financial crisis, more and more people are starting to think Karl Marx was right. The great 19th Century German philosopher, economist and revolutionary believed that capitalism was radically unstable.

It had a built-in tendency to produce ever larger booms and busts, and over the longer term it was bound to destroy itself.

Marx welcomed capitalism’s self-destruction. He was confident that a popular revolution would occur and bring a communist system into being that would be more productive and far more humane.

Marx was wrong about communism. Where he was prophetically right was in his grasp of the revolution of capitalism. It’s not just capitalism’s endemic instability that he understood, though in this regard he was far more perceptive than most economists in his day and ours.

More profoundly, Marx understood how capitalism destroys its own social base – the middle-class way of life. The Marxist terminology of bourgeois and proletarian has an archaic ring.

But when he argued that capitalism would plunge the middle classes into something like the precarious existence of the hard-pressed workers of his time, Marx anticipated a change in the way we live that we’re only now struggling to cope with…

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Miscellany for Learning

The lecture notes of University of Kansas Professor Anna M. Cienciala: Nationalism and Communism in East Central Europe. The notes cover the history of East Central Europe from the partitions of Poland beginning in 1772 through to the post-Communiest period.

The Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence’s Chronology of Mass Violence in Poland 1918-1948

Telling the Irena Sendler story: Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

Protestant kids from rural Kansas, discovered a Polish Catholic woman who saved Jewish children. Irena Sendler and these students have chosen to repair the world. This web site shares the legacy and life of Irena Sendler, plus her ‘discovery’ for the world.

Editions Bibliotekos announced that Dr. John Guzlowski will participate in a series sponsored by the English Department of St. Francis College on October 11th from 4–6 pm. John’s reading and discussion, entitled War Remembered – Lightning and Ashes: Two Lives Shaped by World War II, will be the third such event initiated by Editions Bibliotekos and hosted by St. Francis. The event will be held in Founders Hall, 180 Remsen St., Brooklyn Heights, NY, and is free and open to the public.

CNN’s Eye On takes you to Poland starting Monday, September 12th.

Through interviews and in-depth coverage, get an up-close look at the country in an international context on TV and online.

In 1989, Poland became the first member of the Soviet bloc to establish a non-Communist government.

Since then it has run headlong into the western world with one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. The CIA World Factbook calls Poland a regional success story…

Poland’s multiethnic past is remembered in A Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures. Highlights include the contributions of Poles whose heritage is Jewish or is from the Ruthenian/Byzantine East, Lithuania, Italy, France, Germany, Armenia, the Islamic southeast. This history of Scotts in Poland is not covered, but is also interesting.

James Conroyd Martin recently finished his manuscript focusing on the Polish Insurrection of 1830. He has posted lines from the manuscript on Facebook. Also, check out Morgen Bailey’s interview with James Martin at Morgen Bailey’s Writing Blog

Kanonia Square below was aglow with torches borne by people streaming towards Długa Street. Events had moved fast, much faster than Viktor had imagined. The people had joined the cadets’ insurgency with unexpected enthusiasm and resolve. Russians had always underrated the Poles, just as the Turks had at the Battle of Vienna. Here was more modern proof.

From The Text Message: Little Poland en la hacienda

From 1943 to 1946, Colonia Santa Rosa in Guanajuato, Mexico was the site of a US-government sponsored home for Polish refugees. About 240 miles northwest of Mexico City and “10 minutes’ ride by mule-drawn tram from the Leon railway station,” the hacienda included a 39-room ranch house, a flour mill, ten wheat storage warehouses, a chapel and other buildings, as well as several acres for growing crops. By October 1943, almost 1,500 Poles were sheltered at Colonia Santa Rosa.

Their path to Mexico was an unlikely one. Having been removed from their communities by the Soviet military in 1939, they first were put to work in Russia and Siberia. They were resettled in Iran by the Russians, and fell into the care of the British government. The British relocated them to camps in Karachi, then still a part of India, and sought US assistance for their support. An agreement was reached between the British, US and Mexican governments with the provisional Polish government in London to relocate these refugees to Mexico…

Martin Stepek seeks to understand and pass on what he has learned about his family’s life in Poland, and their odyssey to find refuge in Polish Legacy. His grandmother and grandfather died in Poland during World War Two, and his father and two aunts narrowly avoided the same fate.

BBC announces a new drama: The Spies Of Warsaw for BBC Four

Two 90-minute film adaptations of Alan Furst’s acclaimed novels will bring to BBC Four a combination of historically located, intelligent narratives, interlaced with flawed, romantic and utterly compelling characters. Furst, widely recognised as the current master of the historical spy novel, evokes a Europe stumbling into a Second World War, his taut and richly atmospheric thrillers grace the bestseller lists right around the globe. They have been described as “Casablanca meets John le Carre”.

Richard Klein, Controller, BBC Four, says: “Alan Furst is one of the world’s finest writers on war and the costs of war on human relationships. It is with great pleasure that I can confirm that BBC Four will be dramatising for television one of his best known novels, Spies Of Warsaw. Furst and Four are a very good fit and I hope our audiences will enjoy the result of this collaboration.”

The characters of Alan Furst’s best-selling spy novels roam the foggy nights and steal across the rainy, cobbled streets of Prague, Berlin, Warsaw, Rome, and Paris. Furst’s protagonists join the ranks of the Resistance in one way or another. They include faded nobility, b-movie filmmakers, newspapermen, ship’s captains and compromised businessmen as well as waiters, shopkeepers, jaded intellectuals, tarnished grand dames, and boozy British secret agents. Together they march in the underground army that seeks to fight back against the Nazi occupiers.

Spanning the decade from 1933 to 1943, as the Germans slowly consolidate their political stranglehold on Europe, Furst’s stories are portraits of subjugated peoples who try to resist the suffocating inevitability of Hitler’s regime. They show the potency and the importance of espionage and pure intelligence in the run up to the war…

Alan Alda had his new play about Marie Skłodowska Curie, RADIANCE: The Passion of Marie Curie, read during opening night of the World Science Festival in New York on June 1st. From the NY Times: Meryl Streep to Participate in Alan Alda’s Marie Curie Play

Mr. Alda, who has written five screenplays and a carton-full of television scripts, said on Monday that “Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie,” is his first attempt at playwriting. The idea struck him about three years ago when he was planning to organize a reading of excerpts from Curie’s letters for the World Science Festival. “Then I found out her letters were all still radioactive and I switched to Albert Einstein,” said Mr. Alda, who has a passion for science. “But I love Marie Curie and I think her story is so important and dramatic, I wanted to explore it and write a play about it.”

Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1902 – for the theory of radioactivity that she developed with her husband, Pierre – and the first person to receive the award twice. She was awarded her second Nobel in chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of two elements, radium and polonium. There have been several renditions of Curie’s life on stage, television and film, including the 1943 drama starring Greer Garson. Without giving too much of the plot away, Mr. Alda said his play focuses on the period between her first Nobel Prize and her second nine years later. The Nobel committee did not originally want to include Curie in the award and only backed down after pressure from her husband. “But they wouldn’t let her get up and accept the award,” Mr. Alda said. “She had to sit in the audience.” In the intervening years, Pierre Curie died and Marie had to run a gauntlet of setbacks and obstacles, but by 1911, Mr. Alda said, “her work is finally recognized, and she takes full credit for it, even though by now she’s weakened by radiation poisoning.”

“I think she had a kind of cognitive dissonance about it,” Mr. Alda said of the damaging fallout from her experiments. “She didn’t want to believe it was sickening her,” he added. “It’s part of the heroism of science itself. We as a species are just so interested in understanding things that might be dangerous to mess with, but nothing stops us.”

Mr. Alda, a voracious reader of nonfiction, said he did his own research. “All I read is science,” he said, though confessed that the math and chemistry involved still elude him…

From Polskie Radio: Poland – a land that time forgot?

A grim-looking farmer with a pitchfork and communist-era industrial cityscapes – such are the images of Poland often presented in modern-day history books in Western Europe, finds a new report.

The backward image of Poland so often presented in history books has been tackled in a report issued on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Ministry by historian Professor Adam Suchoński from Opole University, who looked into the history textbooks used in high schools throughout Europe.

…

“These textbooks are still very much in use. Reprinted every couple of years, reinforcing negative stereotype of Poles and their country,” says Professor Suchoński, adding that “[Poles] are depicted as fighters, victims of war, persecution and failed national uprisings.”

…

The historian suggests that Poland should prepare an extensive overview of its history, which it should forward to the Georg Eckert Institute, an acclaimed reference center for textbook research in Germany and a Mecca for authors of history books.

Modjeska — Woman Triumphant: The first full-length documentary made about Helena Modjeska

Helena Modjeska was born in Krakow, Poland, on October 12, 1840. She received her only formal education while attending the convent run by the Order of the Presentation Sisters. She was seduced at a young age by one of the family guardians, Gustave Sinnmayer. He later fathered her two children, Rudolph and her daughter Marylka, who died in infancy. As the couple traveled with their acting troupe around the provincial towns of Galicia, Gustave used the stage name “Modrzejewski” while Helena adopted the feminine version “Modrzejewska”. Later, when performing abroad, she anglicized her name to “Modjeska”.

Realizing that her impresario could no longer advance her career, Helena left Sinnmayer, taking their son Rudolf, and returned to Krakow. While engaged in the Krakow theatre, she met the Polish nobleman, Karol Bozenta Chlapowski. They married in 1868 and left for Warsaw where she became the most celebrated actress of the Polish national theatre. Her brothers Jozef and Feliks Benda were also respected actors in Poland. The Chlapowski home became the center of the artistic and literary world. Yet, due to the political situation in Poland and its influence on her work, Helena’s life became unbearable.

In 1876, for personal and political reasons, Modjeska and her family emigrated to the United States with a small group of friends. They purchased a ranch in Anaheim, California, forming a Polish colony of intellectuals. The colonists knew very little about farming and the utopian experiment eventually failed.

Modjeska returned to the stage, debuting in San Francisco with an English version of Adrienne Lecouvreur and reprising the Shakespearean roles that she had performed in Poland. Despite her accent and imperfect command of English, Modjeska achieved great success in her thirty-year career in the United States and abroad.

In 1893 Modjeska was invited to speak in a women’s conference at the Chicago World’s Fair. She described the hardships of Polish women in the Russian and Prussian-ruled parts of Poland. The Russian tsar banned her from traveling or performing in Russian territory.

Modjeska became known for her support of charitable causes. She had ignited and influenced the careers of many international artists, such as Sienkiewicz and Paderewski. She advanced and uplifted the profession of acting for women…

Deconstructing myth: Cavalry did not charge the tanks – some interesting facts about the start of World War II. Based on John Radzilowski’s work and featured in the NocturN510 Blog.

The battle in the Polish Corridor was especially intense. It was here that the myth of the Polish cavalry charging German tanks was born. As Gen. Heinz Guderian’s panzer and motorized forces pressed the weaker Polish forces back, a unit of Pomorska Cavalry Brigade slipped through German lines late in the day on Sept. 1 in an effort to counterattack and slow the German advance. The unit happened on a German infantry battalion making camp. The Polish cavalry mounted a saber charge, sending the Germans fleeing at that moment, a group of German armored cars arrived on the scene and opened fire on the cavalry, killing several troopers and forcing the rest to retreat. Nazi propagandists made this into “cavalry charging tanks” and even made a movie to embellish their claims. While historians remembered the propaganda, they forgot that on September 1, Gen. Guderian had to personally intervene to stop the German 20th motorized division from retreating under what it described as “intense cavalry pressure.” This pressure was being applied by the Polish 18th Lancer Regiment, a unit one tenth its size.

Art, Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, Political, , , , , , , ,

Art and thoughts for Labor Day

At Dawn. Going to Work, Czesław Wasilewski, ca. 1930

The history and tradition of the Polish National Catholic Church’s is the life and history of its people and their relationship with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The documents, hymns, and writings of the Church, and its civic action all reference its relationship with Labor. That relationship was founded so that the struggles of its members would not go unheeded, but rather to support them in prevailing in their fight for freedom, recognition, fair treatment and wages as workers, and their dignity as citizens and Christians.

These references include, from the Hymn of the Polish National Catholic Church:

Now again He comes from heaven,
Midst the lab’ring, toiling people,
In the form of Bread and God’s Word,
To His humble, needful people.
To His humble, needful people.

From the Hymn of Faith:

To Thee we come, O Lord our God,
Before Thine altar Father,
Thou knowest best our yearning hearts,
This supplication answer.
Lift up from want thy people, Lord.
Bless us O God, O Father bless our toil.

Under Thy Cross we stand prepared,
To serve Thee with devotion,
Be it with sweat of blood or tears,
Or humble resignation.
For we Thy people are, O Lord,
Save us O God, O Father bless our toil.

The Church, addressing criticism of Bishop Hodur’s support for workers and their efforts. Some saw a necessity for removing religion from the workers movement. From Straz (21 January 1910):

As it was in 1897, so it is today in the year 1910, that Bishop Hodur is a supporter of reform in the civil or the social spirit, he is for the nationalization of the land, of churches, schools, factories, mines and the means of production. He has stated this openly and states it publicly today, he does not hide his sympathies for the workers’ movement and he will never hide them, and he considers himself nothing else than a worker in God’s Church.

But the bishop is an opponent of erasing religion from the cultural work of humanity — indeed, Bishop Hodur believes strongly and is convinced that all progress, growth, just and harmonious shaping of human relations must come from a religious foundation, lean on Divine ethics, and then such growth will be permanent and will give humanity happiness.

Bishop Hodur stood with strikers and those in the Labor movement. He participated in strikes and supported striking workers, and called the PNCC together to respond to the Lattimer Massacre. The following is from a November 30, 1919 speech at a reception for delegate Maciej Łacszczyński, editor of a labor newspaper in Poland and a delegate to the International Conference of Workers held in Washington. The address was attended by members of congress and John T. Dempsey, President of the United Mine Workers Union:

One of the greatest achievements of modern civilization is respect and honor for human labor. ln the past, labor was undervalued, work was shameful, and what goes with that, working people were mistreated and abused. There was kowtowing and bowing before those who did not need to work hard, and those who did work hard and with their toil created wealth and fed others were regarded as half-free or slaves. Even the greatest of the ancient thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle regarded this economic system as just and the only one recommended, in which a minority rules and possesses full rights of citizenship and the majority works and produces. This majority of people had no rights, it was not free. And such a system lasted whole ages.

Truly Jesus Christ came on earth as the greatest teacher of humankind, the spiritual regenerator, and he condemned a social order based on cruelty and injustice, and His immediate disciples tried to create a new order, the Kingdom of God on earth, but the exponents of force and exploitation soon managed to gain for themselves the leaders of the Christian Church and impose on them their points of view. And the entire Middle Ages, that is, for about a thousand years more, this unjust system was tolerated, this order in which two castes, that is, the magnates, nobles and clergy, possessed rights and privileges; townspeople had limited rights, but the great masses of peasants and laborers were without rights, without influence whatsoever. It was not even permitted to change one’s lord. One was tied to the field or to the workplace like some kind of thing without a soul.

Not until the beginning of the nineteenth century were the commandments of Christ the Lord remembered, His teaching about the worthiness and value of labor. But it was not the priests, not the bishops, not the pope – these representatives of the Christian Church – who recalled this splendid teaching of Christ about the value of the human soul and labor, but lay people, first in England, then in France. It began to be taught that work is the foundation of the social structure, that work is the source of wealth, prosperity and happiness, and what goes with this, that it is not the nobility, not the magnates, not those presently ruling who should be the ruling class, but if there is to be a ruling class then it should be the working class.

And from that time, that is, more or less from the middle of the last century, begins the organization of workers on a larger scale in the name of the rights of man, in the name of the value and worthiness of labor. Everything that workers did in the name of their slogans was good.

And today one may say boldly that the cause of labor is the most important one, and that progress, the development and happiness of the whole nation, of all mankind, depends on its just resolution. Workers today have more privileges than they have ever had.

In this reasonable and just struggle for rights, bread for the family and education for children, for common control of the wealth created by the worker, our holy Church stands before the worker like a pillar of fire, and the hand of Christ blesses him in his work.

Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Ethnic American Literature and Poetry Writing Position

Forwarded by Dr. John Guzlowski

GRINNELL COLLEGE: Tenure-track position in the Department of English (Ethnic American Literature and Poetry Writing), starting Fall 2012. Assistant Professor (Ph.D.) preferred; Instructor (ABD) or Associate Professor possible. Grinnell College is a highly selective undergraduate liberal arts college whose English department offers courses in a broad range of literary traditions spanning the long history and present multiplicity of writing in English. The College’s curriculum is founded on a strong advising system and close student-faculty interaction, with few college-wide requirements beyond the completion of a major. The teaching schedule of five courses over two semesters will include Literary Analysis, a survey and an advanced seminar in Ethnic American literature, and eventually introductory and advanced courses in poetry writing. Every few years one course will be Tutorial (a writing/critical thinking course for first-year students, oriented toward a special topic of the instructor’s choice).

In letters of application, candidates should discuss their interest in developing as a teacher and scholar in an undergraduate liberal arts college that emphasizes close student-faculty interaction. They also should discuss what they can contribute to efforts to cultivate a wide diversity of people and perspectives, a core value of Grinnell College. To be assured of full consideration, all application materials should be received by November 11, 2011.

Please submit applications online by visiting our application website. Candidates will need to upload a letter of application, curriculum vita, transcripts (copies are acceptable), statement of teaching philosophy, a set of recent teaching evaluations, a writing sample, and also provide email addresses for three references. Questions about this search should be directed to the search chair, Professor Astrid Henry at 641-269-4655.

Grinnell College is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to attracting and retaining highly qualified individuals who collectively reflect the diversity of the nation. No applicant shall be discriminated against on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, religion, creed, or disability.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Remembering 1 August 1944

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. The on-line Polonia community has commemorated the day in many ways. I begin with John Guzlowski’s poetry from The Warsaw Uprising, August 1, 1944

On August 1, 1944, the Polish resistance and the people of Warsaw rose up to throw off the Nazi oppressors. The Poles fought with guns, bricks, stolen grenades, sticks, and their hands and teeth. The Nazis retaliated with tanks, bombers, and fire.

63 days later the last Poles surrendered to the Germans.

250,000 men, women, and children were killed in the fighting, and the city of Warsaw was leveled by the Germans.

As a boy growing up, I would often hear my father talk about the fight the Poles made in the face of German military superiority. He would talk and sometimes he would weep for the dead.

My father wasn’t there, of course. He had been taken by the Germans to Buchenwald Concentration Camp several years before. But when he talked about the Warsaw Uprising, he spoke like a man who had been touched by something that he would never forget.

I tried to capture this in a poem called “Cross of Polish Wood…”

A historical timeline for the Warsaw Uprising can be found at the Warsaw Uprising 1944 website. And, remember to support Wisia’s Story, and projects like it, so to preserve first hand accounts of these events.

The History Channel aired Betrayal: The Battle for Warsaw in 2009. The film’s description is a fitting synopsis of the events that began this day:

The Warsaw Uprising was the largest and perhaps most heroic underground campaign of World War II. It was also one of the most desperate and little known battles of the war. Yet even as the Poles rose up against the Germans in the heart of Warsaw, they were callously betrayed. Not by their enemies but by their allies.

They were promised help that never came, so they took matters into their own hands. In the summer of 1944, more than 20,000 Polish Freedom Fighters and 220,000 Polish civilians died at the hands of the German Army during 63 days of hellacious battle in Poland’s capital city of Warsaw.

On September 1, 1939, Hitler’s Nazi forces invaded Poland from the West, and two weeks later, Russia invaded from the east. There they formed a resistance movement with the hope of eventually overthrowing German occupation in their homeland and re-gaining freedom. Polish soldiers, who had escaped, joined Allied forces around the world to battle the Axis, while in German-occupied Warsaw, the Polish underground published newspapers; plastered the city with fliers urging resistance; bombed supply trains; assassinated German officials in public; and gathered a force of 400,000 known as The Home Army.

The Germans responded with the brutality that was their trademark, setting up gallows around the city for public executions, rounding up suspected sympathizers and herding them onto trains bound for work camps and gas chambers.

By 1944, the Russians had switched sides and were allied to Britain and America. And as the Russians pushed the Germans out of Russian territory and back through Poland, the Polish underground prepared to rise up against the Germans in Warsaw. The plan was to liberate their capital just before the Russians reached Warsaw and liberate the city.

But to prevail the Poles would have to join forces with Joseph Stalin, the same man whose forces had massacred 22,000 Polish soldiers and buried them in mass graves only a few years earlier. On August 1, 1944 at 5 p.m., with the Russian army just miles away, The Home Army launched a surprise attack against the Germans … the Warsaw Uprising was underway. Yet, just when the Poles expected the Russians to join the battle, the Russians stopped as the Germans in Warsaw decimated the Polish insurgents. There was a reason: Stalin had no use for the insurgents; his plan was to install a communist puppet government in Poland after the war. Yet perhaps the most appalling aspect of the story is that Churchill and Roosevelt let Stalin get away with it.

Consisting entirely of archival footage and interviews with survivors, BETRAYAL: THE BATTLE FOR WARSAW is an inspiring and heartbreaking retrospective of one of the greatest fights you’ve probably never heard about. Highlights of BETRAYAL: THE BATTLE FOR WARSAW include:

  • The little-known Polish perspective on the latter years of World War II, when the under equipped Home Army struggled against superior German forces and waited for help from Allied forces that never seemed to come.
  • The historic summit in Tehran, in which Churchill and Roosevelt each separately promised Stalin that Poland would be his once Germany fell, paving the way for a half-century of Communist rule there after the War.
  • Tales of the heroic efforts of the Polish insurgents, including carrying the wounded to safety through the city sewers, the special efforts of the women of Poland both on the battlefield and as nurses in makeshift hospitals, and the efforts to find food and water in the war-torn streets of Warsaw.
  • Survivors share memories of German brutality, including pouring gasoline on living people and lighting them on fire. “These were not soldiers,” one survivor recalls, “They were rapists and murderers.”
  • The horribly botched efforts at support by the Russian and American Armed forces, which included supplying the Polish with thirty-year-old rifles that didn’t work and dropping relief supplies directly into the hands of the Germans.
  • The eventual surrender of The Home Army to German forces, after which Hitler placed the entire remaining population in concentration camps and leveled the city, building by building.

From YouTube and The Wall Speaks: Krystyna Rutczyńska, a courier for the AK (Home Army) speaks about her experience during the first day of the Warsaw Uprising. / Krystyna Rutczyńska, łączniczka AK w Powstaniu Warzawskim opowiada o przeżyciach pierwszego dnia Powstania Warszawskiego.

From Polskie Radio on commemorations in Poland: Warsaw Rising remembered

Ceremonies marking the 67th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising of Polish Home Army partisans against occupying Nazi German forces have begun in the Żolibórz district of the capital, where the Uprising began in the early afternoon hours on 1 August 1944.

Memorial events are also planned for tomorrow and Sunday, when President Bronislaw Komorowski will host a meeting with former insurgents who are arriving to Warsaw for the occasion from various parts of the world.

On Monday, the anniversary itself, in line with a long-standing tradition, sirens will wail across the city, buses and private cars will draw to a halt and pedestrians will stand still for a minute’s silence on the stroke of 5 pm, the exact time chosen by the Home Army to launch the uprising. The main ceremony, attended by top-ranking politicians, will be held hour at the Powązki Military Cemetery.

Special concerts, theatre performances, city games and sing-a-longs are also planned.

Fought in a bid to secure Poland’s post-war independence, the Warsaw Uprising was led by the Home Army – commanded by Poland’s government-in-exile in London – which secretly deployed around 50,000 fighters. Around 18,000 of them died in the sixty-three day-long battle.

Some 180,000 civilians were massacred, or killed by crossfire or bombing, as the Germans took Warsaw back street by street.

And: President Komorowski gives thanks to Warsaw Rising insurgents

President Komorowski with veteran Helena Wołłowicz; photo - PAP Bartłomiej Zborowski

President Komorowski was with his aunt and veteran of the 1944 Warsaw Rising Helena Wołłowicz today, to mark the 67th anniversary of the insurgency against Nazi occupation, which began on 1 August 1944.

Bronislaw Komorowski was at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw as part of a day of ceremonies and events to mark the uprising, which was eventually crushed by the Nazis.

Later, President Komorowski led a ceremony at the Warsaw Rising monument outside the parliament building in honour of those fallen 67 years ago.

President Komorowski told the dignitaries and veterans that Poland’s wartime underground state could be an example for his countrymen today.

Komorowski declared that theclandestine state, which included underground courts, universities, theatres and publishing houses, “was a phenomenon then, and today it can also be a source of pride and an important point of reference for contemporary Poles in thinking about their country.”
Komorowski alluded to the parallels between the wartime generation and his own, in their desire for “the reconstruction of the Polish state”.

“So today, here in this place, where the monument to the Polish underground state stands… the Polish president bows his head low, not only before those who created this state, but also before those who fought for this country, and to those who are able to respect the Polish state,” the head of state said.

From YouTube: The Nazis – A Warning From History, The Wild East (Episode 4, Parts 1-4) discussing the Nazi German policies toward Poland during World War II.

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Telling the story, supporting the story tellers

From KICKSTARTER: Wisia’s Story, A Documentary project in Warsaw, Poland by Karina Wielgosz & Paul Barry

In 1944, twenty-three year-old Jadwiga (known affectionately to her family as ‘Wisia’) had been living in her native Poland under the yoke of German-occupation for almost five years. Unbeknownst to the invaders, an underground force was mobilizing with the aim of reclaiming at least part of its homeland. The ‘Armia Krajowa’ (‘Home Army’) operated in secret, received its orders from the exiled Polish government and employed the skills of many young people like Wisia to aid them in the uprising.

A select group of youth, including Wisia and her brother, had been secretly selected and trained in running messages and administering medical aid. This group of young civilians supported and sometimes even fought alongside the Armia Krajowa. Their jobs were extremely dangerous but they carried out their missions with remarkable bravery. Our documentary will explore not only the historical details of Wisia’s experience but just as importantly, the composition of her courage, to be able to survive – and ultimately escape – when so many were imprisoned or perished at the hands of these violent intruders.

On the 1st of August 1944, led by the Armia Krajowa, the proud people of Poland united in an attempt to repel the invaders from the city of Warsaw. Through a series of operations and concerted attacks, the civilian-supported Armia Krajowa devastated the German occupiers in the short-term and formed the backbone of what history remembers as The Warsaw Uprising. The uprising’s subsequent failure, eventual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers and citizens and Hitler’s vindictive destruction of 90% of the city, does nothing to bury the bravery of all who fought during this period for the basic privilege of a peaceful life.

Countless other stories of bravery by soldiers and civilians alike also remain untold, but the selfless actions of one particular twenty-three year-old woman remain a timeless demonstration of heroism in the face of tremendous adversity. This young woman, Wisia, is now a great-grandmother approaching her 90th birthday with a spring in her step and glint in her eye. She is our grandmother and we can no longer allow her sacrifices to remain simply a page on an historical website. For decades her full story has remained untold, but with your backing we will travel back in time with Wisia. She will acquaint us with the locations, walk us through salient events and introduce us to the survivors of such an unforgettable time in her life, in Warsaw, Poland…

Lend your support to the project. They are 65% of the way there. You can help tell this story before it is too late.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

For book lovers – new and interesting

The Polish American Encyclopedia, edited by James S. Pula, is now available.

At least nine million Americans trace their roots to Poland, and Polish Americans have contributed greatly to American history and society. During the largest period of immigration to the United States, between 1870 and 1920, more Poles came to the United States than any other national group except Italians. Additional large-scale Polish migration occurred in the wake of World War II and during the period of Solidarity’s rise to prominence.

The encyclopedia features three types of entries: thematic essays, topical entries, and biographical profiles. The essays synthesize existing work to provide interpretations of, and insight into, important aspects of the Polish American experience. The topical entries discuss in detail specific places, events or organizations such as the Polish National Alliance, Polish American Saturday Schools, and the Latimer Massacre, among others. The biographical entries identify Polish Americans who have made significant contributions at the regional or national level either to the history and culture of the United States, or to the development of American Polonia.

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From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette: The Next Page / Pittsburgh doctor, Polish warrior: The Jerzy Einhorn story

A proud old man died the other day and a window on history closed.

Jerzy Einhorn was 92 when he passed away at his Mt. Lebanon home on July 4.

A prominent doctor in his native Poland in the 1960s, he came to the U.S. in 1967 and became an endocrinologist at Montefiore Hospital, where he treated thousands of patients and directed the thyroid screening program. He also established health clinics in Hazelwood and Greenfield and taught at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Einhorn leaves behind a wife and three children from two marriages. He also leaves behind a back story from his youth straight from the movies — a tale full of Nazis, narrow escapes and dangerous liaisons in occupied Poland during World War II.

A Polish cavalry officer, he fought the Germans in 1939 and then served with the Polish underground Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising, a battle that ended with the Nazi annihilation of the city in 1944.

He won military decorations, escaped captivity multiple times, twice crossed the Eastern Front, swam the Vistula River and ended up imprisoned and beaten by the Soviet secret police in 1945.

He lost his father — forced to dig his own grave before being shot — and a sister, sent to a concentration camp with her two children.

His story is one of millions from that time, but unlike many others, he wrote it all down in a memoir, “Recollections of the End of an Era,” published in Polish in 2000 and translated into English in 2005…

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From A Polish Son: Wesley Adamczyk Speaks the Truth about Katyń

Chicago Polish-American author Wesley Adamczyk invited me to his home on July 14, 2011, to see his exhibition. As I make my way in, he advises me to watch out for the electrical cords running to a strategically placed floor lamp in his living room. He has positioned several lamps to shine on his collection of memorabilia and publications related to the Katyń Massacre and the deportation of Poles to Siberia at the beginning of World War II.

“Some of my collection I have displayed on the walls and tables,” he says, “and some things I am going to display through multimedia. This is a display of a performance piece titled Two Christmas Eves,” he indicates, pointing to a poster, “one in Poland shortly before the war, one in Siberia in 1941, after my family and thousands of other Polish people were deported to Siberia in 1940.” The drawings contrast the cultured family life Adamczyk knew as a child with the brutality of the Soviets…

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From the Cosmopolitan Review: Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout, a review by Margaret Butler

Lauren Redniss has written a very modern portrait of this celebrated couple that is a treat to read. From the custom type created by the author to the layout of the sparse text to the illustrations, the author presents a biography that captures not only the linear progression of the lives of these scientific giants, but connects their work to its effects in the world. “Radioactive” is a work of art.

One key to the success of this book is the incorporation of numerous quotes of Marie, Pierre, and others. Actual words help the reader relate to the Curies and to their time. In addition, the accounts and testimonies of other sources linked to the Curies’ work help the reader understand the magnitude of their discoveries. This is especially evident in chapter 5 “Instability of Matter” in which Marie’s thesis that radiation may inhibit malignant cell growth is followed by the 2001 testimony of a cancer patient being treated for Non-Hodgkins lymphoma with a thermoplastic radiation mask. The same chapter included the development of the atom bomb, the Manhattan Project, a copy of declassified FBI files, and the testimony of a Hiroshima survivor.

As the story of Pierre and Marie Curie progresses chronologically through the nine chapters of the book, the author mirrors the characters’ personal and professional lives with other seemingly random events…

One underlying theme of the book is the remarkable partnership of individuals who, working together, discover something new. At the turn of the century, an amazing confluence of scientific discoveries and ideas created an atmosphere where information was shared among scientists. Beginning with Pierre and Marie who never sought a patent for their discoveries, to Marie and Paul Langevin, then to Marie and her daughter Irene, then Irene and her husband Frederic Joliot, etc., these relationships clearly show the benefit of sharing ideas and how those ideas spread with a life of their own throughout the scientific community.

The book spotlights Marie’s great personal strength. As the reader follows Marie’s life, one begins to understand the tremendous challenges she overcame starting with her Polish childhood in Russian-occupied Poland. Her clandestine studies through the secret “Flying University” allowed her to acquire an education so thorough that she could ably compete as one of 23 women of 1800 students attending the Sorbonne. Conducting the physically exhausting work of proving the existence of polonium and radium, and later suffering through radium toxicity did not detract from Marie’s focus on scientific study and the raising of her two daughters…

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From Mary Akers: Radical Gratitude by Andrew Bienkowski and Mary Akers was recently translated into Polish and published as Radykalna Wdzięczność.

Radical Gratitude is both narrative and inspiring practical guidance, telling the story of one family’s survival in Stalinist Siberia. That experience develops into a guide to becoming a person who can give to others. Each chapter details the ways we can achieve radical gratitude (learning to be grateful even for the difficult experiences in life). Andrew Bienkowski has spent more than 40 years as a clinical therapist. At the age of six, he and his family were forced to leave their Polish homeland for Siberia where his grandfather deliberately starved to death so that the women and children might have enough to eat. The years that followed were harrowing and influenced his entire life. After Siberia, the family spent a year in an Iranian refugee camp where Andrew nearly died from dysentery, malaria and malnutrition. Three years in Palestine followed, a year in England, before he finally immigrated to America where he went on to earn a Masters in Clinical Psychology. Mary Akers’ work has appeared in a number of international literary journals, many related to health and healing.

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Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, , , , , , , , , ,

Around the PNCC, Lent to Summer 2011

From the Abington Journal: St. Stanislaus Polish National Catholic Cathedral Block Party, from 5 to 10 p.m. continuing through the 27th. Corner of Pittston Avenue and East Elm Street, Scranton. Features a variety of foods, drinks, games and music. Info: 570.961.9231

From the Republican Herald: Around the Region

Shenandoah: Of all the houses of worship ever in the borough – there were 18, including those now defunct – only two are on the east side. They are St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church, East Oak Street, and the First United Methodist Church, Oak and White streets. The church/synagogue count includes Catholic (Roman [, Polish National,] and Ukrainian), Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish. Defunct houses of worship include Kehillat Israel Synagogue, the Russian Orthodox Church, Our Lady of Mercy Syrian Catholic and Holy Family German Catholic. Although the St. George Roman Catholic Church building no longer exists, the parish family remains functional. Still existing are Annunciation BVM, St. Stanislaus, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St. Stephen and St. Casimir Roman Catholic, St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic, Holy Ghost Polish National, St. John’s Lutheran, Trinity United Church of Christ, First Baptist, Restoration Fellowship, Primitive Methodist and First United Methodist. In years past, the Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society sponsored tours of the various churches.

From The Dispatch: Holy Mother of Sorrows to host music convention

The National United Choir (NUC) 22nd Music Workshop/30th General Convention hosted by the Scranton Chapter Circle Choir will be held at Holy Mother of Sorrows Church on Wednesday, July 27, through Friday, July 29. This workshop brings together the many talents of organists, choir members and musicians dedicated to the music ministry of the Polish National Catholic Church.

The convention will open on Wednesday with a Mass at Holy Mother of Sorrows beginning at 5:00 p.m. concelebrated by the Prime Bishop Anthony Mikovsky of the Polish National Catholic Church, United States and Canada; Bishop John Mack of the Diocese of Central Scranton, New York and New Jersey; Bishop Thomas Gnat, Bishop of the New England Diocese, Bishop Anthony Popka, Bishop of the Diocese of Chicago and Father Zbigniew Dawid, Pastor of Holy Mother of Sorrows.

Five instructors will give their expertise in music over the two day workshop: Dr. Jim Ploshanka of Cleveland, Ohio; Dr. Neil Stahurski of Pittsburgh, Patrick Marsinko, II; Scranton; Lisa McConlogue, Scranton, Director of Vocal Music at Scranton High School and Wendy Blotzer, McKeesport, Math Teacher, Clairiton City, who has served the National United Choirs as a Music Commission member, Music Scholarship Reviewer and Composer.

The Convention/ Workshop participants will review the new organist handbook, expand the music scholarship program which has awarded more than $330,000 since its inception in 1966 to parishioners committed to the music ministry, prepare music selections for the two free concerts and introduce their newly published church hymnal. This one of a kind hymnal includes all of the traditional Polish hymns from all the holidays plus customary church songs with the Polish verses on one side and the English translation on the other side. Volunteers from all parishes throughout the continental United States spent 20 years crafting this hymnal.

On Thursday, July 28, and Friday, July 29, after the days convention the National United Choir will hold two concerts free of charge and will be open to the public. Both concerts will be held in Holy Mother of Sorrows Church starting at 7:00 p.m.

On Thursday the Ekumen Chorale the Premier Eastern European Choral Ensemble of Northeastern Pa. conducted by Patrick Marsinko, II will perform sacred choral works compiled by composers of Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Belarus.

Marsinko, founder and conductor of the Ekumne since its creation in 1985 is a native and resident of Northeastern Pa. and holds Bachelor’s Degree in Language and Music from the University of Miami. He studied for his Master’s Degree in Rome and at the Eastern European Institute at Fordham University. He has worked with the Miami Symphony, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. He has taught at Marywood University and Keystone Junior College, was Director of the Keystone Choir and has also taught in the Scranton and Archbald Public School Systems for the past 28 years.

Friday’s concert will include all the visiting Bishops with the workshop participants singing a selection of songs from the new hymnal featuring Dr. Neil Stahurski as organist.

Following this concert refreshment will be served in the parish hall. All are welcome.

The National United Choir has commissioned the hymnals for sale to the public. If you are interested contact Raymond Makowski, Librarian of the NUS at 1233 Rundel St, Scranton, Pa. 18504, or call 570-346-6756. The cost is $25.00 and $3.00 for shipping. He will also have the hymnals available after the concerts on Thursday and Friday.

From the Northwest Indiana Times: East Chicago church blesses new Cedar Lake home

The Rev. Anthony Mikovsky, seventh prime bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church, and the Rev. Anthony Kopka, diocesan bishop of the Western Diocese, are presented bread and salt by James Szalony and Katherine Long during Sunday’s dedication of St. Michael the Archangel National Catholic Church in Cedar Lake. Kopka mixed blessed salt, wine, ashes and water to make Gregorian water, which traditionally is used to consecrate churches and altars.

The church dedicated the first phase of its new complex in Cedar Lake on Sunday afternoon. In addition to parishioners and clergy of other faiths, special guests included Town Council President Robert Carnahan and two officials from Pangere Corp., which built the new building at 6629 W. 133th Ave.

“This day we bless our parish,” said St. Michael’s pastor, the Rev. John P. Kowalczyk.

As part of the ceremony, Pangere’s Robert Grow and Steve Pangere presented Kowalczyk, Dale Wynant, parish committee chairman, and Bill Burket, relocation committee chairman, with keys to the building. “May the building stand 100 years,” Grow said.

St. Michael’s sold its original church, in East Chicago, in 2007. Until the opening of the new church building, parishioners celebrated Mass at Great Oaks Banquets in Cedar Lake.

Carnahan presented the building’s certificate of occupancy on behalf of the Town Council.

“It is a privilege and an honor to do so,” he said.

The dedication ceremony was conducted by Kowalczyk, the Rev. Anthony Mikovsky, seventh prime bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church, and the Rev. Anthony Kopka, diocesan bishop of the Western Diocese. Other Polish National Catholic clergy attended, as well as ecumenical guests from United Methodist, Zion United Church of Christ and local Catholic churches.

After the keys and certificate of occupancy were presented, the processional cross led the way. The bishops first blessed the church entrance and the area of the building to be used as a hall. In the hall, Kopka mixed blessed salt, wine, ashes and water to make Gregorian water, which traditionally is used to consecrate churches and altars. The church’s sanctuary space was then blessed and its altar consecrated.
The bishop blessed items from the parish’s old church, including an offertory table, tabernacle, pulpit and woodcut panels depicting the stations of the cross.

St. Michael the Archangel National Catholic Church was first established in East Chicago in 1903. Its earliest parishioners were Polish. It reached 200 members by the 1940s.

A new church, with more than 50 stained glass windows donated by parish families, was built in East Chicago in the 1950s. English Masses were added in the 1960s and the church continued to grow. Its 100th anniversary was celebrated Sept. 28, 2003.

The last Mass in the old church was celebrated Nov. 18, 2007. The parish purchased 7.75 acres on 133rd Avenue in Cedar Lake in 2008. Groundbreaking for the new church complex was March 8, 2009.

From the Times Leader: Ashley Legion honors vets with monument: Tribute to fallen veterans and victims of 9/11 is dedicated at Club 79

WILKES-BARRE – With pomp and circumstance, the five uniformed members of the Ashley American Legion Post 673 paid tribute to America’s fallen veterans and the victims of 9/11 on Monday by dedicating a monument in front of Club 79 on Blackman Street.

The ceremony was arranged by Club 79 owner Charles Hoynowski, who also purchased the monument, which reads, “To all veterans and those 2,982 victims who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.”

The ceremony began with the Very Rev. Thaddeus Dymkowski of Holy Cross Polish National Catholic Church in Wilkes-Barre saying a prayer and then blessing the monument with holy water. Legion chaplain Arthur Prandy then made some remarks.

“We are gathered here today to dedicate this memorial in honor of the victims of the terrible 9/11 tragedy, where so many people lost their lives, and to honor all of our deceased veterans,” Prandy said.

Following Prandy’s comments, three members of the legion fired blanks from guns in memory of the honored, and legion bugler Charles Falcheck played “Taps” on his bugle. An American flag was hoisted up a pole behind the monument.

Ashley American Legion members are responsible for attending local military funerals and delivering military honors. They receive their assignments from Officer Warren Gallagher of Scranton, who gets his information from Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Post Commander Tom Paul of Ashley was pleased with the ceremony.

“I think it’s a great thing,” he said. “We should have more monuments out there for our veterans and for what happened during 9/11.”

Hoynowski, 68, was inspired to place the monument due in part to his own experiences in uniform; he served in the U.S. Navy from 1961-67 and was a state trooper from 1972 to 1992.

“We were supposed to place the monument five years ago, but the club was having financial problems,” he said. “Now that the club is doing better, we’re finally doing it.”

In addition to dedicating the monument, Club 79 will also donate a $100 check to the Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign Fund in Washington, D.C. This campaign raises funds for a proposed memorial located in Shanksville to honor the Flight 93 passengers who thwarted another terrorist attack on 9/11.

From New London Patch: Under The Gold Star Bridge, A Small Church With A Big Heart: It plans to keep meeting, but the St. Peter and Paul Polish National Catholic Church may soon be giving up their building to the Homeless Hospitality Center

When I was working to put together some of the directory for this website, the St. Peter and Paul Polish National Catholic Church at first eluded me. A business located farther down State Pier Road informed me that I’d overshot the building, and I found it amid a small cluster of buildings. The small wooden structure is slightly obscured by trees, located next to a housing project and the larger Faith Fellowship church, across from the Old Town Mill, and almost directly under one of the ramps leading to the Gold Star Bridge.

The denomination itself dates back to 1897 when it split from the Roman Catholic Church to incorporate Polish language and culture. The New London church was founded 90 years ago, in 1921, when the area had a Polish neighborhood to help sustain it. With attrition and the changing surroundings, the membership has dwindled to about 20, and only about 10 people were at the service I attended on Mother’s Day (the third Sunday of Easter). It’s a small but vibrant group dedicated to keeping the church active.

Stepping inside the church almost seemed like entering another world. The interior was well-maintained, with a bright altar holding several religious figures. Simple blue and gold windows let in the light, but none of the sound, from outside. Inside the sanctuary, the rumble of the interstate traffic overhead was nonexistent.

Rev. Stanley Kaszubski, the church’s pastor, says the Polish church is similar to the Roman Catholic Church, but does not fall under the Pope’s administration. Other differences include the right of priests to marry and a ceremony at the beginning of the service where confession is done silently and followed by general absolution. The program does not outline every step of the service, but the members seem to know where to find the necessary responses in a booklet entitled “The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”

The service is remarkably quick, lasting about 45 minutes. A significant portion of that time includes the prayers and proclamations leading into the communion, presented by Kaszubski at the front of the church. Kaszubski also gave a brief address, smiling as he dedicated the mass to the mothers and encouraged everyone to enjoy the beautiful weather. His lesson gave another encouragement, saying Christians often look to personally experience Christ but don’t share it with others.

“We really need God every day in our lives,” he said.

Kaszubski, a native of Poland, has served in other churches in the denomination, including one in Manchester and one in Webster, Mass. He served 12 years as administrator of the New London church before he was appointed pastor last year. The services are open to all, not just those of Polish descent, and he said he is always available to assist anyone with their troubles.

“We are here, we will be here, and anyone is invited to worship,” he said.

Kathy Donlon, who has attended the church for five years, said Kaszubski’s upbeat and welcoming attitude was one of the main factors that made her decide to become a member. She said she particularly enjoys the homilies Kaszubski delivers, as they make a strong connection with the congregants.

“You feel like he’s almost family, because it’s such a small church,” said Donlon.

Colleen (Rzepniewski) Pinckney said she was christened in the church and has attended regularly since 2000. She feels a personal connection to the church, as her grandfather helped found the church and her father retrieved the chandelier hanging in the sanctuary as part of his work in house demolition.

“The feeling that I have when I’m here, the feeling of belonging…there’s definitely a connection for me, and I can’t explain it because it comes from my heart,” said Pinckney.

With increasing expenses and decreasing membership, the church is still going but poised to make a big change. It is working to sell the church to the New London Homeless Hospitality Center, at which point they would move both the daytime operations and night shelter into the building. The members would continue to meet next door, in the conference room in the rectory.

For Pinckney, the change will be bittersweet. She said she was initially upset with the idea of turning over the church to another group. However, she said she was happy it would be used as a “continuation of God’s work.”

From the National Council of Churches: National Council of Churches member communions say the death of Bin Laden must be a turning point

New York, May 3, 2011 – The death Sunday of Osama Bin Laden does not “eradicate the scourge of terrorism,” but it should stimulate the churches to commit themselves “to moving forward together as witnesses for God’s love and peace.”

The statement, released Tuesday on behalf of the National Council’s member communions, says:

The death of Osama Bin Laden is a significant moment in the turbulent history of the past decade. It does not eradicate the scourge of terrorism nor does it bring closure to the grieving and pain the world has endured since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, for which he was the primary architect. The National Council of Churches deplores and condemns the extremism he personified, the twisted illusions that wrought years of violence and evil in the world.

Now the member communions of the National Council of Churches pray for God’s help as we commit ourselves to moving forward together as witnesses for God’s love and peace. In November 2001, as the world reeled from the terror attacks, the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches and Church World Service challenged their communions to take the lead:

It is time [we said then] for us as an ecumenical community to make a renewed commitment to a ministry of peace with justice, and to make real in these days the call of Jesus, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) In his Beatitudes, Jesus calls us, his followers, to be merciful if we are to receive mercy; he reminds us that the peacemakers are blessed and will be called children of God. And, he proclaims us “the light of the world”; our good works should be a beacon to others so they may give glory to God. (Matthew 5:14-16)…

The NCC includes the PNCC and the statement was signed by the Rev. Robert M. Nemkovich, Jr., Ecumenical Officer of the Polish National Catholic Church in America.

From the Albany Times Union: Seeking divine sustenance: The Capital Region’s faithful celebrate Easter with a truly diverse range of traditional fare

Throughout the generations, Christian immigrants brought along not only the rituals of their religion but also favorite foods for the celebration of Easter.

After sundown on Holy Saturday, a cauldrum of fire to light the paschal candle — signifying Christ, the light of the world — burns outside a Loudonville church of a longstanding Polish National Catholic congregation.

In Albany on Sunday, Nigerians and Ghanaians in African garb celebrate Christ’s resurrection with drumming and singing in their native dialects at the International Christian Fellowship Ministry.

After the Easter service at the First United Methodist Church Hispanic Emmanuel Faith Community in Rensselaer, Caribbean sweet drinks quench the thirst of the congregation led by Pastor Mariana Rodriquez. Some three dozen members gather in the parish hall for a chicken dinner and a Cuban drink made from sweet potatoes, and one from red beans with roots in the Domincan Republic.

Sweet is also favored by Germans in delicacies like marzipan, an almond paste, in the shape of a lamb. “Jesus was the lamb of God, and that means good luck,” says Glen Eggelhoefer, owner of Rolf’s Pork Store in Albany’s West Hill. Ham and lamb are the most common main courses.

“After 40 days of Great Lent, after fasting, it is now time to celebrate and taste food — a gift from God,” said the Rev. Mark Gnidzinski, pastor of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa. Founded by Polish immigrants in Albany in 1920, the parish celebrated its first Mass at its suburban home on Easter Sunday in 1999.

In Polish and Eastern European tradition, swieconka is the blessing in church of decorated Easter baskets filled with kielbasa, horseradish, bread, butter lambs and colored eggs that signify new life. The food graces the Easter dinner table…

From the Times-Tribune: Residents still dependent on community to help make ends meet

At first, Sally Kurtz felt strange walking into a neighborhood food pantry and accepting a box of items that would help her make it through the week. But as it became harder and harder for the Scranton woman, who retired from her maintenance job two years ago, to make ends meet, she found herself depending more and more on the soup kitchens and other community services.

“Buying heating oil is expensive; all my utilities are expensive,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without the food pantries and the soup kitchens around here.”

On Saturday, Mrs. Kurtz joined dozens of others at St. Stanislaus Polish National Catholic Cathedral’s Youth Center, 530 E. Elm St. in Scranton, for a monthly free hot meal. It is one of several places around the area where people can gather for some food and friendship, and organizers said they have seen an increase in the number of people who come to eat since they began the program three years ago.

“We’re seeing more people every month,” said Carol Nasser, who helps out at the monthly meal. “The recession isn’t over, not for a lot of people.”

Also at the youth center for a free meal was Ann Thorne of Scranton. She has been out of work since August and has had little success in finding even temporary jobs. And though it was the first time she had ever been to St. Stanislaus, she said she was glad she had heard about it.

“I’m worried about paying bills,” she said. “I’m trying to make it on my own, but it’s hard.”

Both women say they worry about state budget cuts proposed earlier this month by Gov. Tom Corbett, some of which may make it harder for agencies that help people struggling with unemployment and soaring bills. Funding for food pantries, homeless shelters and other social services is in jeopardy, and both women said they are not sure where else they would go for help if local programs were to disappear.

“It will make it harder for me,” Ms. Thorne said.

Father Charles Csirip, one of the volunteers at the monthly meal, said the church and other community groups have come forward in the last few years to help those struggling and would continue to do so.

“People are doing better, but they’re uncertain that they’re going to stay better,” he said.

From the Baltimore Sun: No Polish Festival this year for shrinking Fells Point community: Festival was at Rash Field, Patterson Park

Warm, melodic polka music still fills the Polish Home Club in Fells Point every Saturday night, where rounds of the house drink — golden, honey-flavored Krupnik — are passed around the bar and quickly drained.

But the decidedly older crowd — one member recalled the first time he walked into the club, still recovering from injuries he sustained fighting in World War II — has thinned as residents from the Polish community die off, with many of their children already having left the neighborhood.

And now, a major symbol of the community’s vibrant past is fleeting: There will be no Baltimore Polish Festival this year for the first time in nearly four decades. When the celebration returns next year, it’s likely to be held at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

“We’ve been in the city all of this time. It’s a sad thing we have to move now,” said Steve Lesniewski, president of the Polish Community Association of Maryland, which organizes the festival. Lesniewski is also the vice president of the Polish Home Club. “You hate to see things fall by the wayside but it happens. … Polish organizations are drying up.”

Each June, the festival has attracted throngs from all over the city over a three-day weekend to celebrate Baltimore’s Polish community — largely congregated in Southeast Baltimore’s Upper Fells Point neighborhood, where immigrants established a number of churches, small businesses and social clubs.

The festival featured pierogies, golabki (a stuffed cabbage dish) and kielbasa. Guests drank beers such as Zywiec and Okocim, and danced to music at three stages. The celebration kicked off the city’s ethnic festival season each summer. This would have been its 38th year in Baltimore; after a long run at Rash Field, the celebration moved to Patterson Park in 1990…

Baltimore’s PNCC Parish, Holy Cross, always had a food sales booth at the festival.

From the Times-Tribune Namedropper:

The Most Rev. John F. Swantek, prime bishop emeritus of the Polish National Catholic Church, was a guest speaker at the weekly Lenten Soup and Sermon series at Elm Park United Methodist Church, Scranton. The series is based on the theme, “Words to the Cross.” Ed E. Rogers, a trustee at Elm Park Church, introduced Father [sic] Swantek. The Rev. C. Gerald Blake Jr., is pastoral associate at the host church.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, , , , , , , ,

Who gets hurt when you shop?

Interfaith Worker Justice points to a group of retailers who are either refusing to negotiate with workers or are proactively dragging worker organizers (on hunger strike) and worker advocates into court to in an attempt to block advocacy and worker organization.

Seems to me that we become less and less free when big corporations can so blithely attack the right of people to freely gather, or to espouse a cause. Something about that in some old document in Washington, but who remembers that anymore. First they came for the organizers, then…

In the first instance, the parent company of several chains, SuperValu, including a chain local to me, Save-A-Lot Stores, filed a suit against organizers and Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (Center of Workers United in Struggle — CTUL), IWJ’s affiliate in the Minneapolis-St. Paul. The workers had sought the Center’s assistance because as they state:

Every night, we are surrounded by food as we clean the grocery stores in our community. Yet often we cannot afford to put enough food on the table for our own families.

With the help of CTUL, workers who clean Cub Foods stores have been trying for over a year to engage Cub Foods in a dialogue about fair wages and working conditions. Also with the help of CTUL, workers went on Hunger Strike for 12 days beginning at the end of May, in a further effort to seek a dialogue. That hunger strike action resulted in SuperValu suing CTUL and its organizers personally.

Please pray for the workers and organizers, sign this on-line petition to support them, and if you are able, make a donation to assist in fighting off this assault on the Center and its organizers.

I Stand with CTUL for Fair Wages and Working Conditions for Retail Cleaning Workers in the Twin Cities

I am concerned about the many reports of human rights violations taking place in retail cleaning. When retail cleaning workers earn sub-poverty wages and have increasingly stressful workloads, this has a negative impact on our entire community. Therefore, I stand firmly with the Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL) in calling on major retail chains (including Cub Foods, SuperValu, Target, and Lunds & Byerly’s) to partner with CTUL to create a code of conduct that guarantees fair wages and benefits for the workers who clean their stores.

Meanwhile at Walmart, work for change is building momentum because of the voices of workers and their advocates.

Walmart Associates throughout the country are standing up for change at Walmart – and IWJ is standing beside them as they work to make a difference in their stores and their company. Momentum is building – both for the Associate-led Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) and for Making Change at Walmart, a campaign that stands in solidarity with Associates claiming the respect they deserve.

No single employer in America has a larger impact on employment standards than Walmart. That’s why stopping Walmart’s race to the bottom is essential. From my point-of-view, the race to the bottom is becoming pervasive in our culture. We all want faster, less expensive, and more convenient, and the thing that makes that happen is a push to lower wages, eliminate benefits, and work people until they drop. The savings have to come from somewhere, so we no longer manufacture in our country, and the workers who are left have to pay the price for a better bottom line. Sadly, we also do it to our neighbors. Should our neighbor be a Union member who enjoys a better standard of living we say: ‘Why should he/she have it, take it away,’ and in due course we all loose what little we have.

If you are concerned in seeing change happen at Walmart, and at fighting against the race to the bottom, be sure to like the Making Change at Walmart Facebook page.

Begin with prayer for workers, and ask for strength to speak out. Speak up for worker rights. Ask that contractor who comes to your door whether his/her workers are employees. You would think that when they tell a worker to nail shingles to your roof that worker would be an employee. Unfortunately, most times employers illegally claim that workers are “independent.” Really!!! The boss is telling them to do something, what shingles to nail, how to do it, where to do it, when to do it, but they are “independent.” Ask your local restauranteur whether the people chopping food in the back room are paid fairly. Ask the chain market manager whether his/her workers are paid properly and have benefits. Then vote with your feet and dollars supporting only those who do right by their workers and your community.

Workers can find more information on minimum employment standards, and can file complaints at the U.S. Department of Labor’s We Can Help/Podemos ayudar webpage.

When did we clothe you, feed you, dress your wounds, visit you? Whenever you did it to these, the least of my brothers (Matthew 25:40).

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