Archives: October 2020

On March 4, 1944, a preparatory conference for the establishment of the Polish American Congress (Kongres Polonii Amerykańskiej, KPA) was held in Chicago, attended by representatives of the entire spectrum of Polish diaspora, along with the clergy and chief editors of the Polish diaspora press. At this meeting, Karol Rozmarek gave a charismatic speech, uttering the historic words: “Today, the defense of Poland is our most sacred and most important duty. It is up to us whether this defense will be just a patriotic phrase, or whether it will be a real defense for which the Polish diaspora in America will not have to be ashamed of it in the future."

There are only a few days left until the presidential election in the United States. The American and world press are not in favor of Donald Trump's re-election. American secret services monitor the influence of third countries on the presidential campaign. China, Russia and Iran are mentioned here. And on October 27, 2020, an extensive interview with President Obama's key adviser and now close associate Ben Rhodes was published on German T-Online. The possibility of re-election of Donald Trump keeps former President Barack Obama awake at night.

The prestigious Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2020 was awarded to two women: French chemist Emmanuelle Charpentier, today associated with the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, and American Jennifer A. Doudn, from the University of California at Berkeley. The award was granted for developing the method of gene editing.

The last presidential debate took place on October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee. This time the moderator was Kristen Welker from NBC News. There are only 12 days until the election, although in many states elections are already in progress - by mail or in person at the early voting stations. To date, 47 million US citizens have voted, which is about 25% of eligible and registered. Presumably, only those who strongly support Republican or Democrat policy have voted so far. So to what extent will the results of this debate influence the elections? Will President Trump or former Vice President Biden be able to convince about 10% of the so far undecided whose votes will really decide?

Last week in Poland was marked by parliamentary debates, debates of the Constitutional Tribunal, farmers' strikes and protests by feminists.

The most important election campaign in the history of the world is taking place in the USA, the result of which will be to define the reality in which we will live. Will it be a left-liberal world or will it still be a world of conservative values?

This year's prestigious Nobel Prize in physics went to three outstanding scientists. Half (50%) of the award went to the famous British mathematician and physicist Sir Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford. It is of particular interest to us, as the scientist has recently been working closely with Polish scientists. The remainder of the award (25% each) was split equally between two astrophysicists associated with California University at Berkeley: Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the Swedish inventor and founder of the famous Prize by his name, was a rather controversial figure. He was a loner, living in isolation, traveling a lot, never got married, had few friends, and was very distant with his family. Politically conservative, for example, he was against allowing women to vote, and was not particularly liked as a manager. Once he became seriously ill, the only person who visited him was his employee. He lived in hotels and in his laboratories, which is why Victor Hugo called him "the richest vagabond in Europe".

Stanisław Zwierzchowski was born on April 27, 1880 in Śrem in Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), under the Prussian partition. He graduated from gymnasium in his hometown and technical studies in Berlin-Charlottenburg. In 1905. with a mechanical engineering degree, he came to Poznań and did an internship at the Hipolit Cegielski Factory. Following the footsteps of his countrymen, he went to the United States for further studies and quickly found a job as a structural engineer at the Allis Chalmers Co plant in Milwaukee.

I was moved to write this short essay by a remark observing that one of our American political luminaries who is running for one of the highest offices of the land hates Catholics. To this a friend of mine responded that Catholics hate themselves.

During the ABC town hall in Philadelphia, Joe Biden compared Poland and Hungary to Byelorussia and claimed that they were in a league of some totalitarian states that are being embraced by President Trump.

It's time to file away our own electoral preferences and make a cold analysis of the role played by the American Polonia in the service of the Polish nation.