Response to Liliana - Reader comments at The New York Sun

Reader comment on:
City's Polish Community Up in Arms Over Stereotypes in Article
in response to reader comment: My fellow countrymen please learn to laugh at yourselves!

Submitted by Zbigniew Z., Nov 21, 2006 22:59

You might be educated, but not smart enough to see that this was written to offend a great population of Poles. If you want to make a fool out of yourself and laugh at this garbage, that's your choice, but when something is offensive, you should recognize for what it is and not try to explain that "we need to learn to laugh at yourselves". We know when to laugh when something is funny, and not at something that is offensive. We do tell jokes about others, just like others tell jokes about us, but when you do it in an open market, web, printed media, then it's different. It has a greater audience and reaches many more people, like just recently comedian Michael Richards found out. I don't think many people were laughing at what he said to African-Americans. Why, is it OK to insult Polish people and unacceptable when it comes to others? When you ridicule, insult people via media, it shapes peoples' impression of Polish people in a negative way. Why didn't he choose to write about great Polish people like Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II), Marie-Curie Skodowska, Fryderyk Chopin, Sw. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, Adam Mickiewicz, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Pola Negri, Helena Modrzejewska, General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, General Kazimierz Pulaski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Mikolaj Kopernik and many others?

I'll tell you why, most likely he has never heard of them and the better reason is that

these people have an agenda to ridicule, discredit Polish people and our country. Did you ask yourself, why he chose Poles, instead of Germans? Did it cross your mind that these people are rewriting history, and because of people like you, they feel empowered to write more trash? Don't be so naïve and laugh at something, when they are spitting in your face. I also know many smart good Poles and know that there are bad apples, like in any nationality, but why should we allow other non-Poles to insult my country men and women, let them insult their own kind. You say that "most of these Poles don't read much", well maybe it's true for whatever reason, but last time I've checked the literacy rate in Poland was 98% to 99%, it is lower in rural areas, just like in any rural area in any country. You can compare Polish educational system to the US public educational system anytime. Just to give you an example, just recently I was corresponding with a person who is educated and has written a book, I've given this person a copy of Chopin's music and was surprised to find out that that person did not know that Chopin was a Polish composer, so much for the educational system here….on the other hand, I should not be surprised, if they read and are exposed to untruths, misinformation about Poland and Polish people. That's why we are fighting the insulting articles dressed up as satire (like it changes the nature of demeaning insults).

So Liliana, if you find the article written by Langlieb funny, then laugh, others like him will laugh too, thinking how naïve you must be to not to see the insult to all of us good Poles. The true Pole knows what it is and it is our duty to defend our good people and our country, as a good patriot would and should.

Zbigniew Z.

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginela, poki my zyjemy" - Jozef Wybicki 1797

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.

Reader comment on:
City's Polish Community Up in Arms Over Stereotypes in Article
in response to reader comment: My fellow countrymen please learn to laugh at yourselves!

Other reader comments on this article

Comment on City's Polish Community Up in Arms Over Stereotypes in Article

Reader comment on:City's Polish Community Up in Arms Over Stereotypes in Articlein response to reader comment: My fellow countrymen please learn to laugh at yourselves!

Other reader comments on this article

Comment on City's Polish Community Up in Arms Over Stereotypes in Article

Reader comment on:
City's Polish Community Up in Arms Over Stereotypes in Article
in response to reader comment: My fellow countrymen please learn to laugh at yourselves!