Tizzies are not what Polonia needs. Polonia needs leadership, organization, and vision. See here.
The current Bieganski crisis is like the last Bieganski crisis and like the next Bieganski crisis. Someone in power -- this time it was James Comey, US FBI director -- said publicly that Poles are more or less the same as Nazis and Polonians are in a tizzy. You can read more here.
Here is a comment from Yahoo coverage of the story:
"Poland has been the most anti-Semitic country, after Germany and Hungary. Poles are Catholics. The Catholic Church helped Hitler murder Jews, Gypsies, gays, Jehovah's Witnesses, the disabled, the homeless and "subversives." "
Here is another comment from Yahoo:
"While it is true that there were righteous Poles who
aided Jews and fought the #$%$; they were a tiny minority. Even in the
resistance, Jews were not accepted or sheltered (there were Jewish resistance
groups, however, they operated independently and had to fight both the germans,
poles, Slovaks, etc on both sides). Some Soviet units accepted Jewish
individuals with necessary skills, but they didn't assist Jews running from
death. And when you look at what happened AFTER Germany was defeated, you see
the hate of Jews, who were killed on returning home. Poles let the Jewish
communities in their midst be taken out to the killing fields, took over their
property, and killed any Jews coming back who might have asked them to give
them their homes and possessions the Poles stole after the communities were
murdered. The Poles still have a problem with giving back Torah scrolls (right
now there are 35 scrolls that need to be returned and the gov't is fighting
it). They have never faced the fact that the majority of Poles did nothing and
even helped the murders or benefitted from the murders."
You can read comments like this here.
Want to change this, Polonia?
Stop getting yourself into empty tizzies. Start organizing. Read this.
We are supposed to be living in an age of Jewish-Polish and Jewish-Christian reconciliation.
ReplyDeleteYeah, right.
Instead of getting into a tizzy, or repeating the same things over again, here is something practical we can all do:
ReplyDeleteClick on my name in this immediate posting. When you do, you will see a petition demanding the resignation of James Comey. Add your name to it.
How does it benefit Polonia to get James Comey fired?
DeleteBetter Polonia should start telling its own story, and start supporting those of us who do this work.
There are several answers to your question.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, it is standard operating procedure to try to get someone fired who has made an offensive remark about one's group. It sends the message that there are consequences to being offensive, and that a commentator best not mess with that group.
The implications are clear-cut. It is a pecking-order test as to which group has the political clout to get someone fired.
Of course, Poles presently have almost no clout, and so it is very unlikely that even a big petition drive would get Comey fired. But we have to start somewhere. Merely "getting the word out" will get us nowhere. It is all about politics, not information.
In addition, a petition drive serves multiple, overlapping purposes. It is a form of consciousness-raising, practical activism, fundraising, etc. It can potentially grow into something big. Merely "getting the word out" won't.