Harvard

February 28, 2007 Agreement Reached to Create a "Polish Caucus" in the Massachusetts Legislature

Pictured in the photo from left to right are: Massachusetts State Representative John Scibak; Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts President Anthony Bajdek; Massachusetts State Representative Peter Kocot; Polish American Congress of Western Massachusetts President Joseph Kos; and Massachusetts State Representative Michael Kane.

In addition to having made the Massachusetts legislature the first in the nation to pass a Visa Waiver for Poland Joint Resolution in May 2004, legislators now have agreed with a proposal of both Divisions of the Polish American Congress in Massachusetts to establish a "Polish Caucus" in the legislature, thereby bringing together legislators of Polish descent and those of other ethnicities sympathetic to issues involving the welfare of Polish Americans and Poland. The agreement was reached on February 28 at a State House meeting involving Representatives Scibak, Kocot, and Kane and Polish American Congress Division Presidents Bajdek and Kos. In addition, further agreement was reached for introducing an annual "Polish American Congress Day at the State House", this year's first such day to be held on May 3, 2007 which will celebrate the 216th anniversary of Poland's Constitution of May 3, 1791. The May 3 celebration -- which will begin at 11:00 a.m. at the Grand Staircase in the State House -- will be sponsored by both the Eastern and Western Divisions of the Polish American Congress in Massachusetts and hosted by members of the "Polish Caucus". As National Vice President for American Affairs, Bajdek proposed to National Directors of the Polish American Congress who met in San Diego in October 2006, that all State Divisions of the Polish American Congress work to establish a "Polish Caucus" and a "Polish American Congress Day in the State House" in their own states. The February 28, 2007 agreement in Boston establishes Massachusetts as the model for such initiatives.

PAC National Vice President for American Affairs Anthony J. Bajdek
of Massachusetts is Guest at the February 9, 2006
Washington, DC Dinner for Poland's President Kaczynski

The occasion of the dinner had been created as a derivative of President Lech Kaczynski’s meeting with President George W. Bush earlier the same day. The dinner was hosted and organized by the Polish Embassy to take place on behalf of President Kaczynski in the Blair House which is located on the grounds of the White House. The Blair House serves as the official residence for foreign heads of state and government when visiting the President of the United States. The dinner for some twenty persons was made up of several Polish Embassy officials, including Ambassador Janusz Reiter, the entourage of President Kaczynski, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs Stefan Meller, and leaders of East Coast Polonia.

PAC/E. Mass. Annual Kosciuszko's Birthday - Washington's Birthday
Political Forum and Banquet - 2005

Dean Anthony J. Bajdek Named "Distinguished
Polish American for 2004" by the Kosciuszko
Foundation, New England Chapter

On Friday, October 22, 2004 during a dinner attended by some 150 guests that was hosted by the Polish Center of Discovery and Learning at Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts, Dean Anthony J. Bajdek, President of both the Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts and the American Association of the Friends of Kosciuszko in West Point, was honored by the Kosciuszko Foundation, New England Chapter,
as the "Distinguished Polish American for 2004." The Award is presented annually to an individual who has been and is actively engaged in promoting Polish arts, culture, history, and language.

In accepting the recognition of the Kosciuszko Foundation, New England Chapter, Dean Bajdek stated that he was "reminded of both, the truth as well as singular contradiction of the old Polish saying, z czasem wszystko sie zmienia (or in English, "time changes everything"). To be sure, time has changed many of the characteristics of contemporary Polish Americans and Polonia, but in one critical area, it has not. We are not what our immigrant ancestors had been when they began arriving in America in large numbers during the decades following Poland's unsuccessful revolt against Russia in 1863, finding themselves strangers in a strange land and challenged to learn a difficult new language. Today, for the most part, we are Americans of Polish descent representing one of our nation's largest ethnic groups. While most of us regrettably are not fluent in the language of our Polish ancestors, we do however sustain a generational characteristic with them that makes us unique in contemporary American ethnic life.We perpetuate and still create in comparable terms as did they the largest number of our own ethnic organizations -- Polish American organizations, a characteristic that sets us apart from the vast majority of our non-Polish American counterparts of European heritage.Although the depth and breadth of our Polish American organizations attests to the vitality of our own Polish heritage, we cannot take it for granted that they will always exist into the far distant, unknown future, unless, of course, we are vigilant, energetic, and creative in sustaining them. In this respect, I congratulate the Kosciuszko Foundation for its work over the years to promote Polish culture and learning, and for being one of the most effective, prestigious, and respected Polish American organizations in the United States."

Poland's Ambassador Thanks
Massachusetts for Help in Campaign to Include
Poland in U. S. Visa Waiver Program

On Sunday, June 6 2004, Dean Anthony J. Bajdek, President of the Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts, hosted a private brunch for His Excellency Przemyslaw Grudzinski, Poland's Ambassador to the United States, at the historic Colonial Inn in Concord, Massachusetts.

The focus of the meeting in which Massachusetts state legislators and others participated was the United States Department of State's Visa Waiver Program. The events that eventually led to the meeting in Concord on June 6 began in the Massachusetts State House on May 3, 2004 following the Annual Observance of Poland's Constitution of May 3, 1791 that had been organized by PAC/E. Mass., when President Bajdek started to work with Massachusetts legislators well-disposed to sponsoring what turned out to be a Joint Resolution of the Massachusetts legislature "urging the President and the Congress of the United States to make the Republic of Poland eligible for the United States Department of State's Visa Waiver Program."

The Joint Resolution was adopted by both, the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Senate on May 10 and 11, 2004. Several original "inscripted" copies of the Joint Resolution were signed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Thomas M. Finneran, the President of the Senate, Robert E. Travaglini, and the seven original legislators who "offered" it for consideration of the legislature, Representatives, John W. Scibak, Peter V. Kocot, Stephen Kulik, and Joseph F. Wagner, and Senators, Richard T. Moore, Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr., and Michael R, Knapik.

Pictured in the Concord Inn to commemorate this achievement in Massachusetts for the benefit of Poland are from left to right, PAC/E. Mass. President Anthony J. Bajdek, Representative John W. Scibak, Ambassador Przemyslaw Grudzinski, and Senator Richard T. Moore.

Scibak and Moore presenting Ambassador Grudzinski with the actual "inscripted" copy of the Joint Resolution on behalf of the Massachusetts Legislature. The other original "inscripted" copies had been sent earlier to President George W. Bush, to the presiding officer of each branch of the United States Congress, and to the members thereof from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Maine State Representative Edward J. Mazurek Presents Legislature's Visa Waiver for Poland Joint Resolution to PAC/E. Mass. President Anthony J. Bajdek in July 2005 at State Capital in Augusta

Maine's legislature became the seventh (Massachusetts, May 2004; New Jersey, October 2004; Vermont, January 2005; Pennsylvania, Senate in February, 2005 and House in April 2005; Connecticut, Senate in May 2005; Maine, May 2005; Nebraska, June 2005; New York, June 2005; Ohio, June 2005; and Michigan, June 2006) state legislature to pass a Resolution in support of Poland being admitted to the Visa Waiver Program of the United States Department of State. Passage of the Resolution by Maine's legislature was spearheaded by Representative Mazurek. The Resolution shown in the photo was subsequently delivered to the Polish Embassy in Washington, DC by Bajdek. In February 2006, Representative Mazurek became a member of the Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts.

The Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts held its Third Annual Kosciuszko's Birthday - Washington's Birthday Political Forum and Banquet on Sunday, February 22, 2004 in the always-captivating ambiance of the Henderson House Conference Center of Northeastern University, in the town of Weston, Massachusetts.

Three active politicians, two from Massachusetts and one from New Hampshire, met with their fellow Polish Americans by way of a formal panel as well as informally, to share their thoughts about politics and their own political experiences, and to answer three questions posed to them by the moderator of the panel, Dean Anthony J. Bajdek, President of PAC/E. Mass., who, prior to posing the questions, opened the day's proceedings by stating that in the 1996 Presidential election in the United States, only 49% of the electorate voted, thereby falling under 50% for the first time since the 1920's. In the 1960 Presidential election, 68.8 million Americans voted and 40.8 million did not; in the 1996 Presidential election, 96.3 million voted whereas 100.2 million did not. In our nation's mid-term Congressional elections, on average 50% of the electorate voted in the 1960's, the percentage fell to barely above 40% in the 1970's, and has averaged 37% since then. This is the reality of voter participation in the modern history of the United States, a reality that clearly augurs negatively for the future of our Republic unless the trend can be reversed. All this while the United States engages militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, against the anti-democratic forces of global terrorism, and to defend our American democracy whose birth was safeguarded 228 years ago by Tadeusz Kosciuszko and George Washington, Bajdek concluded.

Panel moderator, Anthony J. Bajdek, PAC/E. Mass. President who is also Associate Dean for Administration and Senior Lecturer in History, Northeastern University.

He then posed three principal questions for the Panel's consideration and response:

1. To what extend do today's Polish American politicians rely on the support of the Polish American voting public?

2. Do Polish American voters have any impact on municipal and state policymakers in New England?

3. How might Polish American voters best position themselves to become a political force
in their own states as well as in New England?

From left, panelists Peter V. Kocot, of Northampton, MA, incumbent member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the First Hampshire District; John W. Scibak, of South Hadley, MA, incumbent member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the Second Hampshire District; Raymond J. Wieczorek, of Manchester, NH, former five-term Mayor of Manchester, NH and incumbent member of the New Hampshire Executive Council, District Four; and the keynote speaker Bruce A. Wallin, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Political Science, Northeastern University.

The Panel discussion was summarized by Dr. Bruce A. Wallin, Associate Professor of Political Science, Northeastern University, who also served as the Forum's keynote speaker following the Banquet.

Questions that came from the audience concerned the upcoming presidential election, economic situation, and shrinking job market in the United States, as well as the current state of international relations between Poland and the United States.

Jacek A. Nowicki, PAC/E. Mass. Director, described his impressions of the Panel in a short, discerning analysis of three political personalities (Kocot, Scibak, and Wieczorek) and their work with voting constituents:

"The panelists, three practicing American politicians of Polish descent of widely varying backgrounds, presented a message that was, in some important respects, remarkably uniform.
In the eyes of this observer, it added up to an excellent primer in participatory democracy. Indeed, the concept of activism, of involvement, ran as a common thread through everything they had to say. That, and the remarkable extent to which the descendants of Polish immigrants have become integrated into the larger society, were major elements in their thinking. All are deeply conscious of their Polish roots and all reported that the 'Polish vote' did not play a discernable role in bringing them to office.

• Mr. Scibak came to the point very directly by saying that in a way the success of Polish Americans as Americans has brought with it the demise of a discernable Polish voting block.

• Mr. Wieczorek's anecdotal history of his career was most illuminating in dealing with the ethnic and cultural factor. He succeeded in retaining his identifiable Polish roots, teaching his public how to pronounce his 'difficult' name. But he, as five-term Major of New Hampshire's largest city, did not come to office on the strength of a Polish vote. In fact, his career was forged in an environment where the dominant ethnic group was French and largely Democratic - and he is a Republican. The object lesson here is the power of involvement. Mr. Wieczorek was in my view the most eloquent exponent of the message
all three speakers made: to make a difference, you must get involved. And the easiest and most logical place to start this is at the local government level.

• Mr. Scibak eloquently reinforced the concept of the involved citizenry investing in the body politic. He urged that we be involved and approach officials -- but not just when we need something. The time to become visible is not when you want to ask for intervention but when you have something to contribute, he said. To this observer, this was a key message.

• Mr. Kocot echoed many of these sentiments. He also eloquently reinforced the concept of integration in a deep and very positive sense. That became clear in the way he answered a question aimed at defining a 'Polish American Strategy'.

• Mr. Scibak replied that we can be a factor for the common good, that we should not separate ourselves, but rather work to make sure that the tide rises and carries all boats up with it."

(Representative Kocot, it must be noted for the benefit of Polish Americans throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, initiated the filing of HOUSE BILL 1640: The Polish Cultural Heritage Preservation Act that established a "special commission to investigate the establishment of a Pioneer Valley Polish Heritage Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.")

Following the discussion with the panelists, everybody moved to the elegant mansion's stone-walled dining hall for the Banquet, and returned to the lecture room for a very interesting and lively keynote speech by Professor Bruce A. Wallin, during which he concentrated on public financing and political activity in a democratic system (his address will be published in a forthcoming issue of The Life of Polonia).

Professor Wallin earned his Ph. D. in 1983 from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked in Washington, DC for both the Carter and Reagan Administrations, and previously taught at the University of Wisconsin and in the California State University system. In 2001 he served as a Fulbright Scholar in Prague (Czech Republic), and has also lectured in Japan, Thailand, Estonia, Germany, and at the University of Warsaw. For the past three years he has served on the Central European Review Committee for the Fulbright Foundation. In 1999 Professor Wallin won the American Political Science Association Award for the Best Book on Urban Politics, for his book, From Revenue Sharing to Deficit Sharing.

The Annual Kosciuszko's Birthday - Washington's Birthday Political Forum and Banquet ended with a jazz concert performed consecutively on piano by two young, talented Polish students from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Bazyl Wajdowicz and Mikolaj Stroinski. Included in their repertoire were compositions by Krzysztof Komeda, Chick Corea, and Czeslaw Niemen.

Mark your calendar and plan to participate in our Fourth Annual Kosciuszko's Birthday - Washington's Birthday Political Forum and Banquet at Northeastern University's Henderson House Conference Center on Sunday, February 20, 2005!

National Endowment for the Arts awards grant to Danuta Borchardt
of Gloucester, Massachusetts

After Ms. Borchardt translated Witold Gombrowicz's Ferdydurke in 2000, she applied for a NEA grant and started to work on Cosmos (Kosmos, 1965), another book written by W. Gombrowicz.

Eleven grants have been awarded by NEA in 2003: 5 for $20,000 each and 6 for $10,000. Ms. Borchardt received one of the 5 top awards. She talks about it with pride and a little surprise. In order to receive that grant, a translator must demonstrate substantial achievement, and, in addition, must select a significant work for translation. In Danuta's case, she had submitted a short sample of her translation, along with an explanation of the importance of Gombrowicz's books in the literary world, and had gone on vacation. She returned to learn that her application had been approved.

Gombrowicz uses language that many publishers would say is not translatable into English. His writing reflects a provocative rejection of traditional literary forms; a constant striving toward liberation from those forms and the perceived need to submit to them. Over time, his writing shows the development and deepening of that philosophy. Czeslaw Milosz, in his textbook History of Polish Literature describes the book Danuta has begun to translate as follows:

"Cosmos opens up a terrifying dimension where any laws ruling human behavior as well as those ruling matter are dissolved - since they are dependent upon an observer who arbitrarily picks this and not that point of departure for a whole series of reasonings. This principle of 'it might have been otherwise' applies not only to the world in Gombrowicz's novel but to his literary procedures as well."

Danuta, asked how she was able to deal with Gombrowicz's language, form and philosophy, smiles and says: that is the language of my father [who was a well known, accomplished writer]. But she also describes the many times she changes words, consults with other translators, and "tries" the English version on her husband as she slowly proceeds in her work to give the English-speaking literary world another Gombrowicz treasure in brilliant translation.

Organized by the Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts, in concert with the Department of History and the Division of Student Affairs, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, the General Wladyslaw Anders, World War II Polish Exiles in Siberia, and the May 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino Exhibit of the Joseph Pilsudski Institute for Research in the Modern History of Poland, Inc., NY, began on Monday, June 30, 2003 with a panel of Poles who had been exiled from eastern Poland by the Soviet Union and/or had served in General Anders' Polish Second Corps at Monte Cassino. The related photographic exhibit on loan from the Institute officially opened later on the same day in the Gallery Exhibit Lounge of the Curry Student Center, and remained on exhibit until August 7, 2003.

Part of the "General Wladyslaw Anders, World War II Polish Exiles in Siberia, and the May 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino"Exhibit

The Pilsudski Institute exhibit, being the creation of Grazyna Jonkatys-Luba, Kazimierz Kradasinski (historical consultant), Krzystof Langowski (translator), and Krystyna Piorkowska, consisted of photographs and text mounted on thirty large vertical panels that displayed scenes of the history of the Polish Army formed in the Soviet Union after Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in 1941. That Polish Army was commanded by General Wladyslaw Anders (1892 - 1970).

The so-called "Anders Army" consisted of Poles who had been deported to labor camps deep in Siberia by Joseph Stalin after the Soviets occupied eastern Poland in September 1939 pursuant to Stalin's agreement with Adolph Hitler. The Anders Army left the USSR by way of Iran and Iraq, and then trained in Palestine. It went on to join the British Eighth Army and participated in the Allied campaign in Italy. The Anders Army's most famous battle occurred at Monte Cassino. Of the 1.5 to 2 million Poles exiled to Siberia by Stalin in 1939, only the 50,000 who made up the Anders Army were allowed to leave Siberia along with their families during the War. more about Monte Cassino...

The day's activities began on June 30, 2004 in the Student Senate Chambers of the Curry Student Center:

Welcome and Introduction:	Anthony J. Bajdek, Associate Dean for Administration and Senior Lecturer in History, Northeastern University; and President, Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts
Congratulatory Remarks:	Marek Lesniewski - Laas, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland
World War II Military Overview:	Stanley Dzierzeski, Lieutenant Colonel (U.S. Army, retired); and Director, Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts
Origin of the Music and Lyrics "Czerwone Maki na Monte Cassino":	Alicja Altenberger, Research Librarian, Harvard University; and Vice President, Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts
Panelists:	Kazimierz Barut, Veteran of the Polish Second Corps Julian Bussgang, Veteran of the Polish Second Corps Bronislaw Frusztajer, Exile in Siberia Tadeusz Lipczynski, Veteran of the Polish Second Corps Stanislaw Schroter, Veteran of the Polish Second Corps Wladyslaw Slanda, Exile in Siberia Aniela Slusarz, Exile in Siberia

Panelists from left, A. Bajdek (moderator), T. Lipczynski, S. Schroter,
A. Slusarz, J. Bussgang, K. Barut, W. Slanda, and B. Frusztajer

We express our gratitude to panelists, all eyewitnesses to, as well as participants
in, the painful, tragic, and not to-be-forgotten experience of both Nazi Germany's
and Soviet Russia's invasions of Poland in September, 1939 --- and the subsequent
events that changed their lives forever.

AMBASSADOR GRUDZINSKI HOSTED IN BOSTON FEBRUARY 20-22 BY
THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS OF EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS

After lecture at NU Ambassador answered many questions from students, faculty, and guests. From left, student of NU, A. Bajdek, Ambassador Grudzinski, J. Lenkiewicz, and A. Magdziak-Miszewska

Ambassador Grudzinski delivers his keynote Address at the PAC/E. Mass. Second Annual KB-WB
Political Forum and Banquet, in NU's Henderson House Conference Center, in Weston.

Dean Bajdek and Ambassador Grudzinski shaking hands: DOWIDZENIA, AND SEE YOU SOON.

Dean Bajdek thanks Consul General, A. Magdziak-Miszewska and Honorary Consul M. Lesniewski-Laas, for being a Guest and Assistant

Anthony J. Bajdek, Associate Dean for Administration as well as Senior Lecturer in History at Northeastern University in Boston, and President of the Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts, was one of three hundred luncheon guests, less than half of whom were Polish American, hosted by Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department on July 17, 2002, to honor the state visit of Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of the Republic of Poland. Earlier in the day, Bajdek had also been a guest on the south lawn of the White House to view the official welcoming ceremony for President Kwasniewski, hosted by President George W. Bush and the First Lady. The visit of President Kwasniewski concentrated on a broad array of topics involving relations between Poland and the United States, especially in their cooperation for the war against international terrorism.

PAC/E. Mass. is a state division of the national organization originally founded in 1944 to lobby with the government of the United States on behalf of Poland as it fell into the sphere of political, economic, and military domination by the Soviet Union. As President of PAC/E. Mass. Bajdek has initiated and participated in actions designed to benefit relations between Poland and the United States, recently the most notable of which, in addition to speaking publicly, writing, and meeting with the Boston chief-of-staffs for both Senator Edward Kennedy and Senator John Kerry on behalf of Lithuania's admission to NATO, was his October 2001 invitation to Vygaudas Usackas, Lithuania's Ambassador to the United States, to be the keynote speaker for the May 4, 2002 Annual National Tadeusz Kosciuszko Observance at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY. Bajdek is co-chair of the Planning Committee for that annual event. Ambassador Usackas' participation in that West Point event was seen as a salient factor for solidifying further the wholesome relations between the United States, Poland, and Lithuania. This coming fall, Lithuania's candidacy for full NATO membership will be decided in Prague.

Bajdek is also the National Executive Director of two committees, one being the "Lt. Col. Matt Louis Urban Commemorative Stamp Committee", and the other being the "Committee for the Permanent Display of the American Flag Behind the Sarcophagus of Tadeusz Kosciuszko in St. Leonard's Crypt of Wawel Cathedral in Krakow, Poland."

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