Letters
Protest Dem Treatment
To The Editor:

The American Polish community in the United States is over 10 million strong. Cohesively united by their common heritage, this vast Polish–American constituency has strong ties to their ancestral land.

Unlike the conditions Eastern and Western European nations experienced during World War II, Poland was attacked on September 1, 1939 by Nazi armies from the west and Communist forces from the east. Over 6 million lives were lost. General [Dwight] Eisenhower commented, after a visit to Poland, that it was the most devastated country in Europe. The capital city of Warsaw was totally destroyed. Over 50 years of existence under two evil and rapacious powers left the land of Poland completely debilitated, raped, exhausted and economically paralyzed. The Yalta Agreement, approved by a Democratic president and congress gave the Soviet Union 55 percent of pre-World War II Polish territory. This agreement also provided for a complete takeover by the Soviets. There has been no restitution for damage done by the Soviet government. Polish slave laborers and others who suffered through the ravages of war benefited little from the post WWII German government and none whatsoever from the Soviet Union.

Today with Poland’s economy in a rapid downslide, suffering a 20 percent unemployment rate the Polish government has to overcome insurmountable odds in rehabilitating its infrastructure. Not having a Marshall Plan—that benefited only Western European nations—Poland faced the overwhelming challenge of restructuring the economy on its own. Poland is still paying off the $30 billion loan it received in 1970. There was no forgiveness from the USA or its former allies.

The current observation of Poland’s economy is of a very dismal nature. Poland’s membership in the European Union has been recently endorsed in a public referendum. Polish–American voters holding Polish passports were eligible to vote. Yet there are no fairyland story solutions when Poland accepts this dubious honor.

The Democratic Party has, in some respect, alienated the Polish community. American Poles residing in New York state feel that some of the Democratic legislators have taken positions inimical to the interest of its one million or more American Polish citizens.

Senator [Hillary] Clinton heads a group of legislators prominent in New York state who work to promote the interests of Holocaust victims and their relatives seeking restitution of properties destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. Senator Clinton’s asking President [George] Bush to intercede with the Polish government on behalf of the senator’s Jewish constituents without understanding the economic struggles of the Polish community, or the nature of the Holocaust, precipitated adverse reaction within the Polish community. The Polish government is attempting to do the best it can to satisfy some of those claims. However, the dismal conditions of economic recovery make any attempts to repay so called ambiguous claims for property restitution from relatives of the claimants may be a chimerical notion. A nation practically bankrupt from Nazi and Communist devastation would soon cease to exist should a blanket policy to restitute properties and moneys to Holocaust victims and their heirs take place.

Statements made by Senator Clinton and some of her colleagues have resulted peripherally in perpetuating stereotypical images of the Polish people as being anti-Semitic and stupid (e.g. the Polish joke syndrome). During one such Holocaust Commission being chaired by the Democratic Speaker of the New York State Assembly, my brother, the PAC chair of the Downstate Division of the Polish– American Congress was in attendance. He witnessed the participants calling the Polish people killers, murderers and stupid. Not once did the Democratic leader of the state Assembly admonish any of the speakers on their use of demeaning, denigrating and vile language leveled at the Poles. The perception was that all Polish people were guilty of being anti-Semitic. After my brother addressed this hearing denying charges of anti-Semitism and decrying the use of stereotypical images as a concomitant of this hearing, one of the Holocaust victims made this comment about my brother’s presentation. "You are one in a million. All the other ‘Polacks’ are guilty of murder." Small wonder then that Polish–American voters are deserting the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party must also face the reality of developing an overall concern in recognizing the needs and aspirations of Poland and its fellow members of the Central and East Coalition (CEEC). This organizational body has issues of mutual concern which must be recognized and addressed by the Democrat members of the House and Senate. One must wonder why the Democratic National Committee seems to give unquestionable support in recognizing the needs of one body of ethnic voters and not the others.

All Polish–Americans are looking for an unbiased political champion. They have millions of votes to cast. The Democratic party could very well be the recipient of this vast united electorate. Information and direction should be offered those legislators who, unwittingly and unknowingly traverse the obstacle-laden path of political expediency.

Sincerely,

John Szarejko

Tall Timbers, Maryland

Council’s Disrespect

The New York City Council, time and again, has shown its disrespect for the taxpayer. Now it is showing its disrespect for the U.S. Constitution and the voter. A new bill proposed—Intro. No. 506, is intended to limit people’s referendums and is an insult to taxpayers, voters and the Constitution.

First they hike taxes and spending to the breaking point. Then they "tweak" term limits to extend the terms of the most powerful members of the council. Now the city council is proposing to limit contributions in support of future referendums, despite Supreme Court rulings to the contrary.

There is momentum building for a people’s referendum on nonpartisan elections but the incumbent majority simply won’t have it.

The freshman city council should be ashamed of itself.

Philip Ragusa

Republican State Committeeman,

Whitestone

MTA Misuses Power

In your editorial "Toll Rulings Rap MTA Bookkeeping" of June 11. You recount the fact that state Comptroller Alan Hevesi found that the MTA misled the public in believing that the MTA had a $236 million deficit when in fact the MTA had instead an $83 million surplus and withheld this information to the public is no surprise to me. The MTA shell game goes back to 1996 when the MTA asked the union to reopen the contract, also claiming back then of another deficit that was also false. To help the Transit Authority out, the former union president of TWU Local reopened our contract without going through the union executive board in violation of the union policy and gave back the transit workers’ 1997 pay raise, gave away 500 cleaners jobs and allowed workfare in the transit system. The former union president claimed that he and the old union law firm asked the MTA to open their books to the deficit for themselves before they reopen our union contract. My guess was that the MTA like in 2002 showed "books" that they wanted the union to see, not the real books. After the true information of the MTA surplus was reported in the New York Times, transit workers demanded that the new contract agreement be scrapped, the union president refused to scrap the agreement or sue the MTA. This refusal cost him his job four years later. That law firm that believed the false books the MTA showed them was also fired.

When the city and state officials support both court injunctions against the union and the transit workers in 1999 and 2002 to prevent a strike you gave the MTA more power over both the transit workers and the public. The MTA used the court injunctions to hide the true information of the MTA books and hid the waste of funds for years. Even the New York Post which at one time supported both the MTA management and the fare hike and even asked that transit workers be fired if they do strike, has now turned on the MTA and blames the MTA for mismanagement that led to the fare hikes, case in point is the new MTA building at 2 Broadway in Manhattan. The MTA instead of buying a building, decided to rent the building and gave the contractor a no bid job to renovate the building for, I think, under $100 million. Instead of the project at 2 Broadway being done on time and on budget, it ran over budget and may cost over $400 million before the project is over. The MTA fired one contractor and hired another one that ripped the MTA off and now faces jail time. That the same time the MTA is fighting the owner of the building to reduce the rent to offset the cost of the project over run. Good luck. No wonder the New York Post editors have egg on their faces. Their friends at the MTA lied to the New York Post, too.

In closing, I do support the rollback of the transit fare and the toll and more control of the MTA by the public so that this kind of Enron rip off doesn’t happen again.

Sincerely,

Alberto Candelaria

Astoria