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Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Ron Urbanczyk to be inducted into Buffalo Music Hall of Fame 2011 class

In a press release issued by the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame last week, Ron Urbanczyk of the New Direction Band was named to its class of 2011 inductees. Renowned Western New York Polka musician Ron Urbanczyk is a veteran band leader, musician, promoter and author who works as the concertina player with the New Direction Band. Urbanczyk will be honored along with his fellow inductees at the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame Gala, to be held on October 6th at the Tralf Music Hall.

The Buffalo Music Hall of Fame Class of 2011, will be introduced to the public in downtown Buffalo on Wednesday, July 27th in front of the M&T Plaza at noon.

Ron is only the fifth “polka musician” to be honored by the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. His nomination was presented to the selection committee in March and after their review and scoring process, Ron was selected.

The BMHOF selection committee judges nominee’s based on their musical talents and tenure, community service activities, professional achievements, career highlights and the performers public visibility on the local and national levels.

Amongst Ron’s musical talents of playing the accordion, bass guitar, concertina and keyboard, his dinner theatre brainchild, Stas and Stella’s Mostly Traditional Polish Wedding, and his song writing abilities, six new originals will be featured on the New Direction’s first CD which they hope to record late this summer, were recognized.
He has played polkas for almost 50 years with the Jolly Jesters, Pole Cats, Steel City Brass, Buffalo Concertina All-Stars, Honky Hoppers, Bedrock Boys and City Side prior to forming the New Direction Band in 2009 with Jim Raczkowski, Bob Krupka, Frank Zeczak and Bill Barnas.

Ron put a trip together after receiving an invitation by the Chemnitz Mueseum of Art & Culture for the Buffalo Concertina Club in 2001. They traveled and performed in Chemnitz and Gruna, Germany, and Krakow and Rzeszow, Poland and visited Prague in the Czech Republic. He found sponsorship from the Deutsche Bank, PUA and Buffalo-Rzeszow Sister Cities Organization to cover the bands expenses.

In conjunction with WXRL 1300, a children’s clothing drive and cash donations for the Children’s Orphanage in Rzeszow was held. Boxes of clothing and $2,000 were collected and given to the Orphanage.

When little Timmy Gusevich was diagnosed with leukemia and Ron found out Greg Gusevich, Tim’s Father had lost his job and health insurance, Ron rounded up fellow Buffalo Polka Musicians at the Potts Banquet Hall to run a benefit dance for Tim, that event earned over $4000.

Ron also brought polka music into venues that were once thought off limits, the New York State Fair, Hamburg Casino, Batavia Casino, Miss Buffalo, town concerts in East Aurora, West Seneca, Orchard Park, Lackawanna and even to Club Lorelei an exclusive German club to name a few.

Ron is an active member of the Buffalo Polka Boosters, United States Polka Association, International Polka Association, Concertina USA, and is responsible for airing It’s Polka Time a one hour polka show on Time Warner Cable outlets in the Suburbs of Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Lockport. Ron and his wife Kathy have also escorted, polka fans from Buffalo on four Caribbean Cruises and to all inclusive vacations at resorts on several Caribbean islands.

Most recently, Ron started as an IJ on the Polka Legacy Network on Tuesday nights from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Listen in. Ron’s format features Buffalo Bands and Musicians.

So Ron is well deserving of his induction into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and we look forward to the October induction ceremony.

Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , , , , ,

Around the Polish-American writing community

The activity at the Polish American Writers & Editors Facebook page has been wonderful. There are links to book and poetry reviews and blogs, opportunities for writers, excellent analysis and recommendations. I highly recommend that anyone who writes or loves to read, or who has an interest in writing become a member of this group.

Some recent/not-so-recent material:

Andy Golebiowski notes Rita Cosby’s book about her father’s participation in the Polish Underground during WWII is now in paperback and close to becoming a bestseller.

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Linda Ciulik Wisniewski recommends Off Kilter: A Woman’s Journey to Peace With Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish Heritage by Linda C. Wisniewski.

Even before she was diagnosed with scoliosis at thirteen, Linda C. Wisniewski felt off kilter. Born to an emotionally abusive father and long-suffering mother in the Polish Catholic community of upstate New York, Linda twisted herself into someone always trying to please. Balance would elude her until she learned to stretch her Self as well as her spine. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her heritage would she finally find a life that fit.

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Krysia Styrna points to Polish Writing which features Polish literature in translation. Recently linked translations include Kordian by Juliusz Słowacki as translated by Gerard T. Kapolka and available on-line through Scribd, and Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk as translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.

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Dr. John Guzlowski discusses the New England Review’s article by Ellen Hinsey on the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and others last year in the Katyn Forest. The article talks extensively and sympathetically about the effect of the crash on Poland. See Hinsey – Death in the Forest.

He notes Polish American writer Danusha Goska is travelling in Poland and posting Facebook and blog updates about her travels at Bieganski the Blog.

Also noted, Daiva Markelis powerful book White Field, Black Sheep: A Lithuanian-American Life published by the Univ of Chicago Press about growing up Lithuanian-American. Her experiences in many ways parallel those of people who grew up Polish-American and the children of DPs. Read her recent interview at The Smoking Poet, Talking to Daiva Markelis

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Danuta Hinc provides a preview of her newest work, a short story entitled In the Forest of Angels. The story is inspired by real events and all the characters in the story are based on real people — her grandparents, mother, and herself.

Pol-Am writer Oriana Ivy continues her writing (absolutely fantastic and a regular read — an inspired and inquisitive poet) with Persephone and Aphrodite. There are many levels, but in short, the process of leaving Poland and coming to America, trauma, finding, and rebirth. She begins with her poem Eurydice In Milwaukee and concludes with Persephone’s Kitchen.

This poem is not about my loss of Warsaw so much as about my loss of America. I mean the idealized, imaginary America in my mind after I arrived in real America. I was seventeen. That combination – loss of both Poland and America – was to be the first in the series of my “Persephone experiences.” (Eurydice can be seen as a version of Persephone.)

In my early teens, in Warsaw, I fell in love with Greek mythology. I thought it was possible to choose your own special goddess. A fierce young intellectual, I longed for Athena at my side – Athena the super-intelligent, with her brilliant strategies and unfailing guidance and protection of heroes. Now and then I also longed for Aphrodite to lend me her charms and help me in matters of love, but with the understanding that this was a secondary goddess. As my personal goddess, I chose Athena.

Soon enough I learned that you do not choose your god or goddess. Life (or call it fate, or circumstances), in combination with your deep self, chooses for you. Past the age of seventeen and a half, the only goddess I identified with was Persephone…

There is tons more of course… all carrying you into a world of writing set apart, yet reflecting who we are in all its rootedness, shadows, and splendor.

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).

Christian Witness, , , , , ,

Standing with the Coptic Church

From Christian Newswire: The Second Annual Coptic Solidarity Conference. Offer your prayers tonight for the the Coptic community and the fulfillment of their conference’s objectives.

The second Annual Coptic Solidarity Conference will be held on Friday and Saturday July 8-9 under the main theme of “Will Religious and Ethnic Minorities Pay the Price of the ‘Arab Spring.’ The Christian Copts are the native ethnic religious community of Egypt, descendants from ancient Egyptians. They number around 15 millions, including a large Diaspora with more than half a million strong community of American Copts.

The Copts have experienced persecutions throughout their history and lately have been subject to acts of aggression and discrimination in Egypt at the hands of extremists and Jihadists. Since the revolt in Egypt brought down the previous authoritarian regime of Husni Mubarak, the Coptic community is facing an uncertain future. The Military Council is slow in implementing true democratic reforms and, even worse, they face the prospect of a Muslim Brotherhood dominated Government in the near future.

Coptic Solidarity International is an INGO seeking the support of the Coptic community in Egypt and the protection of its fundamental human rights. It raises awareness within the international community about the Coptic historical and current issues via educational and informational activities.

…

Coptic leaders from North America, Europe and Egypt will speak on the conditions of the community in the Middle East and in the Diaspora.

The key objective of this two-day conference is to understand the implications of the current upheaval in the middle East and to offer present and future support to the Copts, and other minorities, as they go through this difficult period.

In February 2011, His Grace Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Orthodox Church discussed the vision and dream for a new Egypt

As post-Mubarak Egypt stands at a crossroads, Coptic Orthodox bishop His Grace Bishop Serapion is certain his hopes and vision for the new Egypt are shared not only by his homeland’s Christians, but lovers of freedom and human rights everywhere.

“While we have a deep concern about the direction of the country, we still have strong hope and great dreams,” HG Bishop Serapion said Sunday afternoon at the Los Angeles Convention Center in an address about Copts’ vision and hope for building the new Egypt. The event, presented by the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii, over which HG Bishop Serapion is bishop, honored Coptic Christians in Egypt who have been killed in religiously motivated attacks by extremists since 2000. Up to 1,500 people were expected to attend the event.

The event aimed to raise awareness of the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt, where they comprise 10 percent of that nation’s 79 million people. The Copts are the largest Christian population in the Middle East. Approximately 40,000 Copts live in Greater Los Angeles, where there are 30 Coptic Orthodox churches.

Following the Jan. 25 revolution in Egypt, Copts’ concerns have deepened for the country’s direction, as pockets of violence have erupted against them. On Feb. 20, Daoud Boutros, a Coptic priest from Shotb near the southern Egyptian city of Assiut, was stabbed to death in his apartment. Father Daoud was a mentor of HG Bishop Serapion. That same day, Egyptian military forces began destroying fences protecting ancient Coptic monasteries, leaving the monks and monasteries vulnerable to attacks. On Feb. 23, military forces opened fire on monks and young people, wounding many severely.

In the past 11 years Coptic Christians have suffered severe persecution and martyrdom at the hands of Islamic extremists, including the New Year’s Day suicide bombing of Saint Mark and Pope Peter Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria, which killed 24 Copts and injured approximately 100. Extremists gunned down six Coptic youths in Nag Hammadi in a Mass on Jan. 7, 2010. Extremists also killed 21 Copts in the village of Al Kosheh Jan. 21, 2000.

HG Bishop Serapion offered prayers for the martyrs and observed a moment of silence for those who died in recent weeks during political demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. He echoed the Rev. Martin Luther King’s call to use non-violent means in advocating for a fair society for all Egyptians.

“What is the direction the society will move? Are we moving toward a state where every citizen has equal rights, irrespective of gender or religion, or a religious state where some people are considered as second-class citizens?” he asked. “We are at a crossroads in our society. We must focus on freedom, justice and equality, irrespective of the name of the person.”

Prompted by biblical and theological convictions, to achieve this dream of equality, Copts must wage non-violent struggle, HG Bishop Serapion said. The struggle entails rejecting injustice, exposing the evils of discrimination and standing up for Christians’ rights through the power of the truth, not the perpetuation of violence. Copts aim to cooperate with people of goodwill, regardless of religion, and will remain steadfast in their struggle “until our dream becomes reality,” he said.

“We must be ready to accept sacrifices,” he said. “Martyrs will fall and people will be wounded. This is the price of freedom and justice.”

Political, , , , ,

Imprisonment

From the National Iranian American Council (NIAC): Watch: Maziar Bahari Discusses Imprisonment

NIAC presents an exclusive interview (in Persian) with award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker, and human rights activist Maziar Bahari. His newest book, Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, chronicles the 118 days he spent in a six-by-twelve-feet prison cell in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. Bahari spoke with NIAC President Trita Parsi and journalist Sahar Namizikhah before giving a book reading and discussion with NIAC members in McLean, Virginia.

Bahari explains his relationship with his interrogator, and shares how he kept his hope alive and his hatred for his torturer at bay. Bahari also shares his views on dictatorships and their ideology and talks of the importance of democracy. In talking about his days in prison, he explains how Iranian Americans can help support human rights in Iran.

Podcast: Interview with Sarah Shroud

An exclusive interview with Sarah Shourd, discussing her experience imprisoned in Iran and the status of her fiance Shane Bauer and friend Josh Fattal, who are still detained in Iran. The three were detained in Iran on July 31, 2009, while hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan near the Ahmed Awa waterfall, a local attraction. Bauer and Fattal have been held for 686 days without trial. Shourd was released on September 14, 2010, on humanitarian grounds after spending 410 days in solitary confinement. Visit Free The Hikers to support their cause.

Art, , , ,

Art for Independence Day

The Declaration of Independence, John Trumbull, 1794

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

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

Remembering D-Day

From Dr. John Guzlowski remembering the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe: D-Day Remembrance

Today, June 6, is the anniversary of the invasion of Europe, and by chance I was in a high school about to begin a presentation about my parents and their experiences in the Nazi concentration camps when an announcement came on asking the students in the school to remember the anniversary of D-Day.

As the speaker talked about what D-Day was, I thought about all that day meant to me, my parents’ long years as Polish forced laborers in Nazi Germany, the refugee camps after the war, the family killed and left behind, our coming to the US as DPs.

When the announcement ended, I began my presentation with a poem about my father’s liberation from the camps. Here’s the poem:

In the Spring the War Ended

For a long time the war was not in the camps.
My father worked in the fields and listened
to the wind moving the grain, or a guard
shouting a command far off, or a man dying…

Christian Witness, Events, Political, Work, , , , ,

Worker Justice events

Supporting the Del Posto Workers’ Campaign for Justice & Respect!

A Fair Food Potluck will take place in front of Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s Del Posto Restaurant in support of the more than restaurant 40 workers at who are fighting to improve their workplace. They demand that managers be trained to stop discrimanation, racism, sexual harassment, and verbal and physical abuse on the job! The workers are also demanding an end to wage theft and the misappropriation of their tips by the company.

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) is a non-profit organization that seeks improved working conditions for restaurant workers citywide. ROC-NY assists restaurant workers seeking legal redress against employers who violate their employment rights. ROC-NY seeks to provide customers and the public with information about the litigation in this restaurant through these handbills, not to interfere with current workers or with deliveries.

Last Chance to Register for IWJ’s June 19-21 National Conference!

Share strategies for building labor-religion partnerships, fighting wage theft and strengthening worker centers by attending IWJ’s National Conference in Chicago June 19-21! Click here to register!

Special plenary and workshop sessions have been added on the Public Sector Worker Fights in response to the vicious attacks on public sector workers. Come learn, strategize, and collaborate as we take a stand against these unprecedented attacks. As people of faith, we are called to step forth and condemn these outrageous attacks on teachers, police officers, fire fighters, public health workers, and other public employees who provide vital services to our communities. An attack on public sector workers is an attack on all workers.

A pre-conference Interfaith Theological Symposium for Worker Justice will also take place. The interfaith symposium is a gathering of theologians, students, religious activists and labor leaders to connect with and be supported by the theological groundings offered within different faith traditions. The interactive symposium will highlight presentations from Muslim, Jewish and Christian experts in the field of economic justice.

If you can’t make the whole conference, join in on Monday June 20 for IWJ’s 15th Anniversary Celebration, which will include tasty appetizers, fine wines, inspiring union songs and gospel music, and 400 religious and labor activists. Reconnect with former staff, leaders, summer interns, and seminarians. Meet the new leaders of the worker center movement. Buy your tickets today or donate $100 so that one of IWJ’s senior citizen volunteers can enjoy the party!

United Brotherhood of Carpenters website on Employer Payroll Fraud: It’s time to play by the rules:

Learn about Worker Misclassification, Workers Comp Fraud, Untaxed Cash Pay, Money Laundering, and Racketeering and how these employer payroll frauds steal from taxpayers, the government, and insurers. It violates workers’ rights and costs jobs for law-abiding companies and their employees. Learn more about these multi-billion-dollar crimes and growing state and federal efforts to fight back.

Florida’s video: Cheat to Compete:

From Florida’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Fraud (BWCF), Division of Insurance Fraud. The video shows fraud schemes seen in the construction industry. Think what you are building is safe and above board? Always ask if your contractor’s workers are employees or independent contractors. If they are “independent contractors” choose someone else. When push comes to shove, the company you contract with will take no responsibility for the work of its alleged “independent contractors” who may also be uninsured.

Art, Poetry, , , , ,

Poetry Updates

There’s been a ton of activity at the Polish American Writers & Editors group on Facebook. Some highlights:

Danuta Hinc in Plowing the Polish-English fallow ground

One might say that living a bilingual life offers enriched experience, but I say it also brings confusion and struggle during the first years of learning, especially when the second language enters someone’s life in the second or third decade. I am not sure if there is a moment when two different languages can merge and become “one” or if they always exist as separate platforms of experience and expression.

Translating my novel, Zabić Innego, originally written in Polish, into To Kill the Other, taught me the value of time and persistent repetition, something that’s hard to admit and even harder to accept in today’s fast-paced world.

For those of us who are born into single-language families — meaning the mother and the father speak the same language — the world becomes entrenched in the sound of the language in a singular if not monotonous way. In this case language becomes unequivocal with objects, actions, feelings, and emotions. I can’t decide if the context of life imposes itself on language or if the language underlines the context. Perhaps the two options are intertwined and impossible to separate.

…

The interesting question revolves around the second language. What happens when we learn another language, the so-called “second language,” later in our lives?

My experience tells me that the second language becomes an exotic realm of existence: appealing, promising, and — against all hope — unattainable…

Florence Waszkelewicz Clowes of the Polish American Journal has invited authors to contact her if they have interest in a review by the Journal.

oriana-poetry reflects on the poetry, theology, and alcoholism of Czesław Miłosz in Milosz At The Gates Of Heaven. A excellent reflection contracting the faith of Agape with the faith of predestination and damnation.

Sober Reader, you yawn: yet another famous poet turns out to have been an alcoholic. “Heaven is the third vodka” – should we even bother discussing what for non-alcoholics is sheer nonsense? And is it really true that great writers need a “charismatic flaw,” as the literary critic Leslie Fiedler claimed, that flaw generally being dependence on alcohol?

Milosz writes: “My real drinking began in earnest in occupied Warsaw with my future wife Janka and Jerzy Andrzejewski (author of Ashes and Diamond) . . . I drank a lot, but always took care to separate time for work from time for letting go . . . Alas, too many generations of my ancestors drank for me to have been free from the urge for the bottle.” (Milosz’s ABC, p. 18)

…I am interested in the acutely bitter tone of this unique poem. Is this Job speaking, subtly accusing the Old One (as Einstein liked to refer to God)? Let’s not forget that Milosz is a metaphysical poet, and can provide us with a certain metaphysical shiver when we consider the kind of cruel deterministic theology that is still very powerful, while progressive Christian theologies remain anemic.

“An Alcoholic Enters the Gates of Heaven” is especially interesting in the light of the recent prediction by a fundamentalist preacher, Harold Camping (a happy camper, since he regards himself as one of those predestined to taste paradise) that the Last Judgment would take place Saturday May 21st at 6 PM (Eastern Standard Time, I think). I have also just read an interesting summary of crucifixion-centered theologies versus progressive theologies. The preacher who was predicting the end of the world belongs to the first tradition, of Christ seen both as a sacrificial victim, a “sin sacrifice,” and – this seems an egregiously un-Christian concept – as the ultimate judge who will accept the chosen few and hurl billions of souls into eternal torment.

Progressive theologies, on the other hand, are fascinated by early Christianity that emphasized agape (loving kindness; a community of affection) and paradise rather than hell. The basic tenet of progressive theologies is that the Second Coming is the birth of Christ Consciousness within us and among us, in the global community. We are here to build the kingdom of God on earth. God intends all souls to be saved. Paradise is here and now.

Alas, progressive theologians do not seem to have the PR resources commanded by the “blood of the Lamb/Armageddon” theologies. The only time there seemed to be true hope for progressive theologies was when Rabbi Kushner’s famous book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, became a best-seller. Kushner posited a deity with limited powers, one who neither causes nor prevents cancer, heart attacks, tsunamis, and other disasters. God does not decide which child will get leukemia, or who will grow up to be an alcoholic. Some evil is the work of natural laws (these days, an earthquake is rarely called an “act of God”); other kinds of evil are the work of man. Afterwards, everything depends on our response: do we curse and despair and can’t move on, or do we summon the strength to transcend the tragedy? Faith is one of the resources that can increase people’s strength to endure and recover. (Twelve-step programs also come to mind.)…

John Guzlowski reads Beets, about his mother’s experience in the Nazi slave labor camps in Germany during WWII. The poem is taken from his book Lightning and Ashes.

…and from yours truly, a friend I assisted in assembling Poetry and Sundry, a book of poems on a myriad of subjects, particularly interpersonal relationships, sex, passion, regret, faith, commitment, love, places, and Polish related subjects:

An excerpt from the poem Narrative:

Constructed sequence events.
Latin: narrare, “to recount.”
Latin: gnarus, “knowing.”
Recounting what we know.
But for us, history unwritten.
No available narrative.
Certainly members of narratives,
Other definitions,
Background stories.
Ours unwritten.
So we have begun, to inscribe.

And the poem Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen.
Kohanim.
You know God – serving Him as priest.
Touching all the essentials
in poetry and song —
love, longing, war, eroticism, spirituality.
Things at our core
that transcend.
Things that quake us.

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Polish-American Night and MLB are a Big Hit

By Raymond Rolak

'Paws' in traditional Polish festive folk-wear busts out the 'Paws Polka' before the Detroit Tiger's game at the 41st annual Polish-American Night at Comerica Park. Photo by S. Szczepanski, Rolco Sports Network

DETROIT– Major League Baseball is really getting into theme nights. It is an added value marketing draw. In Detroit and Chicago, Pepsi has been at the forefront of a marketing partnership with baseball and the Polish-American community.

In Detroit recently, ‘Paws’, was a highlight as he entertained the announced crowd of 34,046 on a misty evening at the ballpark. The animated mascot of the Detroit Tiger’s was dressed in colorful Polish folk-wear. It was just one of the highlights as young and old approached to touch and talk with the popular cheerleader. The color, music and dancing were all part of the pre-game festivities for the 41st annual Polish American Night at Comerica Park.

For those in attendance, besides the anticipated baseball action, and the spectacular color display from the dancing troupes, there was the added value of post game fireworks sponsored by Pepsi. Pre-game music was provided by: The Natural Tones, The Kielbasa Kings and Big Daddy Lackowski & The La De Das.

A special promotion was sponsored by the PRCUA and the Michigan Division of the Polish American Congress. Those that purchased a special ticket package received tee-shirts with “Who’s your Tiger” in Polish on the back, (Twoj Ulubiony, TIGER?).

Before the game, Detroit Tiger’s manager, Jim Leyand, graciously took time to acknowledge those on the field supporting the pre- game festivities. Leyland spoke with former baseball sensation Pinky Deras before the game. Deras is one of the 2011 inductees into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame and was acknowledged on the field. The game was telecast to Boston and regionally thru Fox Sports-Detroit.

Detroit Tiger's manager Jim Leyland was taking in all the pregame festivities on the field during the 41 annual Polish-American Night at Comerica Park. Here he graciously signs an autograph for Fr. Walter Ptak of Wyandotte. Photo courtesy of Rolco Sports Network.

Before Rob Szczublewski of Toledo, Ohio did great service to the Polish and American national anthems the dancing troupes were center stage throughout the field of play. At the appointed time pre-game emcee Rob Wolchek decreed, “Play ball.”

The evening started with great expectations and high hopes by having ace pitcher Rick Porcello on the mound for the Tiger’s. The Boston Red Sox had a five run third inning that sent the Tiger starter to the showers and dimmed some of the evenings merriment. Leyland said after the game, “He was just out of sync.” Tiger rookie Charlie Furbush was a highlight with five innings of shutout relief. With the home team losing 6-3, the post game Polka concert left most departing the stadium in good spirits.

Veteran talk-radio host Ron Cameron along with good friend George Eichorn saluted Ed Browalski. Browalski was one of the driving forces of Polish-American Night and he headlined the formation of the NPASHF.

“Big Ed”, as he was affectionately known, was a respected baseball and bowling writer. He was also the longtime official scorekeeper for the Detroit Tigers. Veteran pro-wresting ambassador Kurt Schneider told humorous Browalski tales about how the players would lobby to get an error erased from the stats.

In keeping with the theme, the press box kitchen at Comerica Park featured a Polish style dinner and snacks. Polish ‘Angel-Wing’ cookies (Chrusciki) were even featured. “These are awesome,” exclaimed radio stringer Rich Curbelo, as he enjoyed the tasty confections.

Deras, who was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals out of Hamtramck High School for a big bonus, told Jim Conrad, “At my first day of spring training in St. Petersburg, Stan Musial came up to me and said, ‘Come on Polish boy, how about some catch.’”

“That shook off the butterflies,” added Deras. “What a class act to help out a rookie like that.” Musial was the first NPASHF inductee in 1973.

At one of the busy Comerica Park concession stands Fr. Walter Ptak of Wyandotte invited those within earshot to their August Polish Festival. Polish national and first time baseball attendee Jan Borowski acknowledged with a smiling and heartfelt, “Tak, tak, bardzo dobrze.”

Boston Red Sox pitching ace Jon Lester met with 17 year old Tim Myszenski of Warren, Michigan. Myszenski, a big baseball enthusiast is suffering the effects of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. It was part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation program.

This year’s NPASHF induction banquet is June 23, at 6:00 pm at the American-Polish Cultural Center in Troy, Michigan. For ticket information, 313-407-3300.

In Chicago, Polish-American Night with the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field will be Tuesday, July 26, 2011. The Sox will take on the Tigers and tickets can be purchased from the PRCUA, 1-800-772-8632, ext. 2601.

Editors Note: Raymond Rolak was a past Chairman of the NPASHF.

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