Happy Polish-American History Month

Polish American Heritage Month was first celebrated in 1981 in Pennsylvania. Originally, August was the month selected to focus in on the contributions of great Americans of Polish descent that were often not recognized. Michael Blichasz of Philadelphia, a fourth generation Polish American, started in an effort to bring to the forefront the strong pride he believed all Americans of Polish heritage should have in the successes that Polish Americans have made in America.

Does the average American youngster -- whether of Polish or any other extraction -- learn in school that a group of Poles arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608, 12 years before anyone had even heard of the Mayflower? Is he or she told that the Jamestown Poles not only laid the foundations for America's first industry (the manufacture of pitch, soap and glass) but also staged America's first civil-rights strike?

Are American school children ever informed that medieval Poland was the largest country in Europe, straddling the continent from the Black Sea to the Baltic? That it provided a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution in Spain, France, Germany and other countries of the 'enlightened' West?

That on at least four occasions it changed the course of history. Thrice it helped saved Europe from invading hordes from the east: the pagan Mongols at Legnica in 1241, the Moslem Turks at the gates of Vienna in 1683 and the Bolshevik Red Army outside Warsaw in 1920. In 1980 Poland's Solidarity movement unleashed a force that eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet empire.

Does today's American youngster learn of the contributions to America made by millions of Polish immigrants who, without the benefit of today's hand-outs and minority privileges, pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps through hard work and sacrifice?

They worked hard, paid their taxes, built clean and safe neighborhoods, maintained their property, kept their kids out of trouble and in general helped to build America up rather than trying to tear it down. These and other facts, still largely absent from the US mainstream, could go a long way towards building up the ethnic self-esteem of Polish Americans.

Read More - Polish News