Our Freedom Is Yours

On Saturday morning, I was stopped short by a text message- a plane crash had killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 96 others. Immediately, I called and asked the location… Russia.

With tragic irony, the Polish Presidential delegation was wiped out while enroute to memorialize the 1940 Katyn Forest Massacre. During World War II (April 1940), the Russians murdered 22,000 members of the captured Polish Officer Corps. On Stalin’s orders, the Russians killed captured Polish military officers, civil servants, and intellectuals, including lawyers, physicians, teachers, professors, engineers, priests, rabbis and other professionals. By “liquidating” the Polish Officer Corps and much of the professional class, the Russians eased future “communization” of Poland.

The Russians had never apologized for the Katyn Massacre and for 50 years had denied culpability. Scheduled for last weekend, the memorial event was meant to extend a hand and unclench a fist. Instead, the Polish State aircraft crashed nearly at the same site.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski was hated by the Russians; he was blunt, and a tough negotiator. As a friend of Lech Walesa, member of Solidarity, and former mayor of Warsaw, President Kaczynski had been jailed while resisting communism.

The historic Polish motto, “Our Freedom is Yours”, is deeply ingrained in the national political culture.

Last fall, I personally experienced the hospitality of Poland and their national commitment to freedom. During my Illinois gubernatorial race, I received invitations to the Presidential Palace, Parliament, Press Club of Warsaw, and a national television appearance on Polish Weekly (equivalent of 60 Minutes). I also met the new American Ambassador to Poland and addressed the American-Polish Chamber of Commerce.

However, an impromptu invitation turned out to be the highlight of my trip. Co-founder of Solidarity Mieczyslaw Gil invited me to the Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of Free Elections in Poland held at the National Bank in Warsaw. At this very private event with less than 100 people present, Central Bank President Slawomir Stanislaw Skrzpek presented me with a set of specially minted Gold Coins of Solidarity and introduced me to those in attendance. Visiting with and appreciated by men who were true freedom fighters, I was humbled and inspired to continue my fight for clean and honest government in Illinois. 

Unfortunately, Banker Slawomir Skrzpek was amongst those killed in the plane crash. Mieczyslaw Gil was scheduled to be amongst the diplomatic delegation to Russia, but a back injury prevented his trip.

The American-Polish synergy in regard to representative democracy, constitutional government, freedom and liberty goes back to the Revolutionary War. During the American fight for independence, General Casimir Pulaski founded the American cavalry and gave his life outside of Savannah. General Tadeusz Kościuszko founded the fort at West Point. Pulaski and Kosciuszko were Polish nobles who were fighting on behalf of our shared principles and values.

At the beginning of World War II, the German- Russian invasion of Poland was the event that insured American opposition to Hilter- Stalin. During the cold war, Poland was the first domino in the successful resistance to the Soviet Union, with a partnership between Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Margaret Thatcher. Recently, Poland was an early, strong supporter and has sacrificed while spilling blood alongside American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan- continuing a long Polish tradition to extend freedom for oppressed people. 

With the Polish State plane crashing near the Katyn Forest, many of the Eastern European heroes of freedom died last week. But, this disaster will not change the course of Poland’s trajectory in Europe. A resurgence of new political blood and an increase of commitment will result. And this will be in keeping with the long tradition of Polish political culture… “Our freedom is yours.”