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Perspective, ,

Memorial Day Reflection

We pause today to honor…

Growing up, that is what Memorial Day was all about. Those lessons, learned as a child, are engraved, engraved and part of me. They are lessons time and tide cannot touch. They are truths that surpass the nowness of today. They tell us that history builds upon a continuity of national spirit. That continuity is more valuable than the whims of politicians and the exaggerated ideas of those who wish to hijack the national treasure. At core we are to be about honor.

National Moment of Remembrance

My father, grandfather, and most of my uncles were veterans. Those few who did not serve in the armed forces served at home. They made the steel that built the ships, planes, and tanks. They protected the home front as police officers. After their time of service they remained loyal to the ideals they fought to protect and maintain. Lessons engraved. Honor.

I saw it after my father died. The flag draped coffin, honor guard, rife salute, taps. I was only four. I saw it each year as my grandfather attended to the veterans graves, including his son’s, at St. Stanislaus cemetery in Buffalo, New York. Those men from the Adam Plewacki Post, #799 of the American Legion, walked the rows of headstones, placing flags for the fallen. I saw it as I served at Funeral Masses and assisted the priest at the cemetery. God, family, country. Lessons engraved. Honor.

Near my father’s grave was the grave of an uncle of one of my classmates. He was killed in action over Europe. Army Air Corps. On the front of his monument there was a small picture. I always stopped to pray there after visiting my father, to honor him. Honor.

Memorial Day will always be about honor. More than honor it is a fitting reminder of what we are as a country. We must pause and remember, not just the service or sacrifice of our father, uncles, brothers, grandparents, and friends, but their eyes, ears, and voices. We must take their vision, the words that they fought for, and the pledges that they took, and we must recapture them. We need their vision, the words they honored, and faithfulness to the pledges they took.

As they did, let us place the Lord God in front of all we do, first and foremost, and render Him due homage. Let us honor God and God’s way above all. Loyalty to His way protects us from the temptation to strike first, to retaliate, to exchange wrong for wrong, to sell truth for sloganeering.

Then our families. The family as core to our communal way of life. Families in communities who maintain self sufficiency, community responsibility, neighborliness, hard work, and charity. Families who sustain community for the common good, because we must live side-by-side without prejudice or scorn. People living in freedom and sharing the gifts of freedom with each other. People who will acclaim: ‘I am free – my neighbor deserves the same respect.’ People who believe that they really must be their brother’s keeper when he is in need.

Finally our nation. Not nation over all, but nation for the sake of good order and the protection of just laws. Not laws over people, and intrusive government, but a shared ideal of what a nation can do by garnering the collective will and strength of its people, only when necessary, and always vigilant against exploitation. Not a nation of invaders, but a nation wary to fight, wary to venture abroad, wary of might over right, the stick over the words.

We pause today to honor the fallen, and to honor their honor. We pause to reflect and then to turn again, to take up their honor and to be steadfast in our allegiance to God, to our families, and to our country. We pause, and with our engraved memory renewed, we take up the fight for our Country. Their ideals, our ideals, bound by honor.

O Judge of the nations, we remember before You with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people in this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — BCP (1979), Thanksgiving for Heroic Service

Christian Witness, Perspective, ,

The Christ has come, we were unprepared

Yet He came to us anyway
To Provide for us

Icon of the Nativity

What it means for us

The iconographic portrayal of Christ’s birth is not without radical social implications. Christ’s birth occurred where it did, we are told, by Matthew, “because there was no room in the inn.” He who welcomes all is himself unwelcome. From the first moment, he is something like a refugee, as indeed he soon will be in the very strict sense of the word, in Egypt with Mary and Joseph, at a safe distance from the murderous Herod. Later in life he will say to his followers, revealing the criteria of salvation, “I was homeless and you took me in.” We are saved not by our achievements but by our participation in the mercy of God -God’s hospitality. If we turn our backs on others we will end up with nothing more than ideas and slogans and be lost in the icon’s starless cave.From Rescued for Christmas by Jim Forest as found at In Communion, the website of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship

My Wish for you

I pray that Christ’s coming will renew you, break down every obstacle, bring light to every aspect of your life, and reconnect all that is separate. He is our hope, therefore we rejoice with one voice.

Christ has come! Alleluia!

Perspective, Political, ,

Patriot Act – messing up my Christmas

Well here’s a new one!

I was going to order a few Christmas gift baskets for relatives and friends. In the past I had purchased some items from a French on-line merchant BienManager, French Gourmet Food and Gifts.

On background, their website notes that they are located in Lozere, in the center of France. They work with 200 producers that match traditional know-how and produce quality products.

They also note that they deliver worldwide.

Because of past purchases I am on their E-mail list. I very much enjoyed what I had purchased, and true to their marketing the quality and variety were excellent.

The marketing E-mail I received from them a few weeks back had some very nice looking baskets with just the right things for the folks on my Christmas gift list.

I went to their website, filled my shopping cart and behold – they do not ship to the United States.

If I lived in Andorra, Gabon, Mayotte, the Gilbert Islands, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Tuvalu, Equatorial Guinea, Poland or any one of 115 countries I could buy their stuff. But no U.S. of A.?

Well, perhaps it was a website error.

I wrote to the company and received a very speedy reply from Mme. Aurelie Verlaguet advising me that even though they have an FDA registration number they can no longer ship to the United States due to the Patriot Act.

Past deliveries were unnecessarily delayed because of Patriot Act requirements and as such they could no longer guarantee the quality of the products they shipped here.

Sad really. I wrote back to Mme. Verlaguet to express my regret, not only that I could no longer engage in open commerce with a reputable company, but that our “involvement” in the crazy politics of the Middle East has brought about such problems.

I guess that free trade and international commerce only apply if you’re rich enough to take your corporate jet to the store, or rather, you import the stuff yourself and take yet another cut from the consumer.

Perspective, Political,

In honor

A worthy read on this day from John Guzlowski: November 11, 1918–The Day World War I Ended.

I knew these guys too, but also my father, grandfather, uncles.

They carried the scars too, but without outward travail. They flew the flag, honored the fallen veterans by placing flags and serving funeral detail. They were Legionaries, and members of the VFW.

They suffered quietly through the indignity of being forgotten in overcrowded, understaffed Veterans hospitals. My grandfather died there, interspersed with the insane, the terminal, the others long forgotten, except by the dedicated who did more than while away the time.

All in tribute to the men and women who went into the fray and withstood the neglect and wrath of their own government. Remember the treatment of the Bonus Army.

Remember all of them, living and deceased, in your prayers today. Remember too, those who are in Iraq and Afghanistan, who will come back in pain, not whole in body, spirit, or mind. Those who will come home where the expectation will be that they slip quietly into memory.

God have mercy on us.

Current Events, Perspective, Political, ,

For the glass house crowd

As you may have read, New York’s governor, Eliot Spitzer, has revoked an Executive Order formerly put in place by George Pataki. By revoking the order, he will be providing an opportunity for illegal immigrants to obtain NY drivers licenses.

Of course, 58% of New Yorkers are opposed to this, with the strongest dissension among upstate New Yorkers (the Downstaters know better, they live in closer proximity to the illegals they rely on each day – are are less hypocritical about it).

Yesterday, New York’s Association of Country Clerks stated that they would not obey the governor and would not issue licenses as required.

Legal wrangling will certainly ensue.

Here’s a few quotes from the Albany Times Union: 13 clerks against Spitzer

County officials to defy driver’s license change, citing security concerns, pressure from constituents

ALBANY — Citing security concerns as well as pressure from constituents, 13 county clerks on Thursday said they would defy Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s order to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

“This is an issue of safety and security for New Yorkers,” said Saratoga County Clerk Kathy Marchione, who added that people have been walking into her Ballston Spa office to speak out against the plan since it was announced late last month…

The not so funny thing about all of this is the hypocrisy of those who are fighting the governor. They fall into a two broad categories:

  • The broad brush crowd: Immigrants are potential terrorists. We must be protected from their wily ways.
  • The out-and-out hypocrites: They are illegal, they shouldn’t be here, they deserve nothing.

Now the errors of the broad brush crowd are pretty obvious. They are bigots. Basically neo-nativists.

The other folks, the hypocrites, well they live in tony suburbs, eat at restaurants, buy groceries, get their car repaired, their lawns manicured, their manure, mulch, and lawn chemicals applied, their houses painted, their driveways sealed, their children cared for, their clothes sewn…

They save money, avoiding legitimate businesses and stores that charge more, and do everything in their power to save that last dime (because they are overspent and living on credit anyway), all on the backs of these very same illegal workers they would so readily deport.

Their 2,500 sq. ft. home was built with non-union labor, mostly illegal workers, saving them tons of do-re-mi.

Hey, how did Jose get to your house to mow the lawn? The truck brought him. How did he get to the employer’s jumping-off point? I don’t know (nor do I much care).

Did you know that Consuela and Yuan are out back chopping vegetables for your dinner tonight? Huh?

If these County Clerks and their constituents are so bent on ‘enforcing the law,’ perhaps they should card check everyone they do business with. Card check those restaurant workers out back, the lawn guy, the carpenter at your new house. But, if they had to think about that, they would quickly fall in with the bigot crowd.

‘I couldn’t do that, those brown people might hurt me.’

Frankly, I am ok with letting these folks have licenses. I am also all for protecting them from the myriad of bad employers out there who treat them like unprotected slave laborers. Of course others disagree.

While I agree with your right to disagree, I would then urge you to be very careful about those you do business with. You can’t have it both ways. If you’re all focused on being legal, be prepared, and pay that premium. Otherwise, you’re just throwing stones, and soon all your windows will be broken, and nobody will be around to clean up the broken glass, or put the new windows in.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Family vacation

The family and I had a wonderful vacation with my sister and brother-in-law in Connecticut. We saw a lot of the sights, ate some really great food, and did some shopping.

Highlights:

The highlights included a day trip to Mystic Seaport. The work they do on rebuilding old ships, in the traditional manner, was amazing. We toured the ships, the museums, and the living exhibitions. I’d highly recommend Mystic as a destination. I can’t help but mention the Polish tie-in. We toured the sail training ship the Joseph Conrad. For those unfamiliar, Joseph Conrad was the pen name of Teodor Józef Konrad Nałęcz-KorzeniowskiAlso note that nearby New Britain is often referred to as New Britski because of the large Polish-American population..

We also visited the Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill. Fun for the kids and very interesting for the adults. They have wonderful nature trails and an exhibition center. The history surrounding the discovery of dinosaur tracks at the site reminded me of what government can do when it chooses to do the right thing.

Shopping:

For shopping we checked out Evergreen Walk and the IKEA store.

IKEA was an event unto itself. An amazing place. As my sister noted, it is not a place you run into and out of, it is an experience. The experience lasted about four hours, including lunch in the cafeteria – the Swedish meatballs were great. I want to redecorate.

We also visited a Stew Leonard’s Dairy Store. That was an experience as well. The products were first rate, and unusual. I found babka (Polish bread) from Brooklyn and Polish Priest Pierogis. It was great for the kids too, with a lot of interactive and entertaining displays.

Food:

For food – my sister makes great meals and knows all the best places. We tried the following:

Lunch at the Sea Swirl in Mystic – an excellent clam shack. I had the fried clams, my wife had the fish. Both were fantastic. I can see why people rave about this place.

Dinner at Abbotts, Lobster in the Rough. Another excellent experience. Down home outdoor eating/picnic style. I had the sampler. Enough lobster, clams, muscles, and fixins’ to serve an army. Note that they do not serve beer or wine, but they allow B.Y.O.B.

While at Evergreen Walk we dined at Ted’s Montana Grill – famous for serving bison steaks and bison burgers. The bison streak was excellent.

Other food highlights included the New York Pickle Deli – if you ever get the chance, check out their seafood bisque. On the way out of town we tried the Wood-N-Tap, a local chain. The food was basic but good.

All-in-all a great trip. I’m happy that my sister lives closer now and that we can spend time together. She and my brother-in-law were excellent and understanding hosts.

Current Events, Perspective, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Sad end to a rich history

It appears that seven predominantly Polish R.C. parishes will be closing on Buffalo’s East Side. For more check out Seven Buffalo churches to merge into two: East Side closings stir some protests from the Buffalo News.

Among the churches to be closed is Holy Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, my mother’s home parish and the parish my grandparents helped to found. It was initially a mission parish for St. Stanislaus, the mother church of Buffalo’s Polonia – a parish designed to serve the Poles who had moved to farther flung neighborhoods.

The most shocking closure is that of St. Adalbert’ Basilica.

Yes, a Basilica.

St. Adalbert’s was the first church designated as a basilica in the United States (1907). You don’t find many of those laying about in the United States.

The genesis of the independent Catholicism in Buffalo occurred at St. Adalbert’s as noted in the history section of the Holy Mother of the Rosary Cathedral website:

An Independent Polish Catholic parish was first established in Buffalo in August, 1895, when a rejected group of parishioners at St. Adalbert’s Parish decided to form a separate church just a block away. These discontented souls were forced to decide their own fate when their requests were rejected by the Roman Catholic Bishop and his advisors.

More on the history of St. Adalbert’s and its tie in to the PNCC here, here and here.

As a grade school student I attended a magnificent Mass at St. Adalbert’s. It was held in honor of the International Eucharistic Congress which took place in Philadelphia in 1976. I had family who attended Holy Mother of the Rosary and St. Adalbert’s.

It would appear that those who chose to have a voice and a vote in the destiny of their parish made a better choice. Their parish still exists.

Here’s a photo from St. Adalbert’s 120th Anniversary celebration in 2006. The next to last celebration.

adalberts_120.jpg

Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Yummy cheese

From Polish Radio via the Polish American Forum: Slovakia backs down on sheep’s cheese war

Slovakia will withdraw its veto on the registration of the Polish `oscypek‘ highlander cheese. An agreement on the matter has been signed by Poland’s deputy premier and agriculture minister Andrzej Lepper and his Slovak opposite number Miroslav Jurenia.

Slovakia officially filed the veto with the European Commission on February 19th claiming it has for centuries been the producer of a similar type of cheese under the name of `osztiepok’.

If Poland would receive the Recognized Certificate of Origin, its `osztiepok’ could encounter serious barriers in export to other EU markets, Slovakia argued.

However, the Polish side had been successful in explaining to its southern neighbors that a bilateral agreement of December 2005 effectively guarantees the two products and their brand names absolute independence of each other, having entirely different cow milk content and place of origin.

This allows for independent registration of the Slovak and Polish cheese product. The contentious cheese has been produced from times immemorial on both sides of the border in the Tatra mountain region with the initial differences becoming more visible, or rather palatable.

The Polish `oscypek’ continues to be hand made by highlander shepherds and has a cow milk content of only 40%, while in the Slovak `osztiepok’ variety it goes up to 80% and the cheese is produced in seven selected dairy plants with Dutch and French capital participation.

Now if some of my Górale friends or family would just send some over… Oh, and a case of Harnaś as well.

Current Events, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia

Majówka – what we’re all in need of

This past Saturday, April 28th, was the beginning of Majówka.

Stanislaw Kamocki, Blossoming Apple Tree, 1906, Lviv Art Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine

Majówka is a nine (9) day weekend enjoyed by Poles.

A nine day weekend you say? How can that be?

The nine day weekend encompasses two full weekends (4 days) plus the Public holidays of May 1st, the “State holiday” (formerly known as Labor Day during the communist oppression) and May 3rd, the anniversary of the Polish Constitution of May 3rd, 1791 (2 days).

May 2rd is Polish Flag Day. While May 2nd is a National Holiday, it is not a prescribed Public holiday or ‘day off.’ Nevertheless, most businesses are closed May 2nd. (1 day).

Adding two personal vacation days during the week (2 days) grants you a total of 9 days off.

Now that doesn’t happen every year. The 1st and 3rd have to fall properly on the calendar, during the workweek, as they do this year.

What to do — na Majówka?

Pretty much anything but stay home.

Head to the mountains or the shore, hit the road for a countryside holiday. Get out to your działka (a country garden – many city dwellers in Poland own a small country plot that they use for gardening) and get your plantings in.

Can you imagine something like that happening in the United States? The production drumbeat goes on, often to the detriment of family, health, and communal wellbeing.

Poland - Polish - Polonia

The communion of saints

There was a great genealogy article from the Detroit Free Press, wich was brought to my attention through the Polish American Forum newsgroup.

As you may know, I have an interest in genealogy. I think of it as more than a hobby. Genealogy reminds me of my connection to the past, to the people of faith who came before me, and that the dead are not dead, but alive forever in Christ in the communion of saints.

From the Detroit Free Press see: Remembering Piotr

Cecile Jensen wants headstones on her ancestors’ graves, starting with her great-grandfather’s

On a windy day last week, Cecile Jensen and Russell Burns, director of the historic Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Detroit, counted their paces across a snowy stretch of ground at the back of the sprawling site. Using directions from a century-old ledger, they were determining the location of an unmarked grave.

“There are thousands of others, just like this one, spread out across the back of the cemetery,” Burns said.

When they finally stopped, Jensen spread her arms wide, “I’m trying to feel it. Just think! Right here, 110 years ago, my great-grandmother and her seven children stood at my great-grandfather’s grave.”

Jensen is haunted by the thought of poor immigrant Piotr Wojtkowiak, laid in an unmarked grave to save money to feed his children. A host of memories connect the retired teacher and author from Rochester Hills to the curly-haired Polish immigrant who died of typhoid fever at 34, while leading a crew digging Detroit’s sewer system.

Among the memories are family stories about his wild hair, so unruly that a hat wouldn’t stay on his head.

He was a multitalented man. He’d been a locksmith on the staff of a nobleman’s manor in his native Poland, and he could bake a tasty apple pie, too. When he and his wife, Marianna, arrived in Detroit in the late 1880s, he first worked at a mining camp in the Upper Peninsula. Later, he found work closer to home in Detroit.

The family stories cover painful details, as well. In the years after his death, for instance, Marianna took in laundry to support her family and was plagued by bleeding hands.

“Their whole story, even my great-grandfather’s unmarked grave, is a part of the story of the thousands of Polish immigrants who helped to build this city,” Jensen said. “He wasn’t alone even in death. There are thousands of unmarked graves in Detroit just like his.”

That’s why Jensen spent several years researching two of Detroit’s historic east-side cemeteries: Mt. Elliott, which Catholic churches opened in 1841, and Mt. Olivet, opened in 1888 because the portion of Mt. Elliott that was reserved for poor people was filling up rapidly.

“Just look at the causes of death listed for the people around Piotr,” Burns said, as he and Jensen examined the old ledgers
chronicling many of Mt. Elliott’s 75,000 burials. “Typhoid, pneumonia, diphtheria — a lot of this, I’m sure, was related to the
city’s terrible water back then.”

The column in the ledger listing age at death speaks eloquently of hardships in immigrant families. On a page near Piotr’s burial, the
ages listed are 6, 6, 7, 1 hour, 1 day and 10 minutes.

A century later, a nonprofit corporation oversees the two Detroit cemeteries. The Mount Elliott Cemetery Association has properties in several counties.

“After all our ancestors gave us, it’s not right that there’s nothing to mark their graves,” Jensen said. “So, my goal is to honor them, starting with Piotr and then I’ll move on to my ancestors in Mt. Olivet.”

To finance this effort, Jensen used her research and artistic background to create two picture books, “Detroit’s Mount Olivet
Cemetery” and “Detroit’s Mount Elliott Cemetery.” Published by Arcadia ($19.99 each), the books are available online and at major
bookstores.

Profits from such books are modest, but Jensen is hoping she’ll make enough to purchase tombstones.

“I’m already thinking about the gathering we’ll have at his grave to dedicate the stone,” she said. “Just imagine! All these years later, there’ll be hundreds of his descendants gathering from all over, coming back to the city once again to honor him.”

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