March, march, march...

Two posts were supposed to appear on here after the last one, but somehow, for some reason, somewhere along the way I got tangled up in excuses of “but I still have to do this, before I finish the post”. 

This post touches upon the events of yesterday’s March (of Independence) which took place in Warsaw. Perhaps it’s not the best of ideas to start this, since I have a ton of thoughts which I would like to touch upon, running through whatever is still functioning in my floating muscle.

Most likely, most of these ideas will evaporate whilst focusing on the issues that I feel are most important to me. 

Was yesterday’s March a success? Yes. Those who seem to think otherwise (most of them basing their opinions on the same raunchy footage shown on the three main TV stations, and on previously held beliefs with regards to those wanting to celebrate Polish Independence – vel patriots – vel fascists – vel racists – vel neon Nazis – vel …well, you get the point…) need to take their heads out of their asses.

Let’s start with the fact that I don’t consider myself to be a very patriotic kind of guy. I feel more connected with Warsaw, than Poland herself. Most of my sentiment for Poland comes from childhood memories, and history. I could, with ease, live somewhere else (then again, “somewhere else” doesn’t have Legia). But am I involved socially and politically in promoting patriotic thought, behavior and action, to the point of “we’re number one”? No. I know we aren’t, and we’ll never be. The freedoms and ideas which I long for will never be implemented, nor accepted, by most citizens. I respect the emblem, and the flag, but I don’t believe these to be patriotic notions. They’re just a part of our history, and I happen to love history. I commemorate those who gave their lives for our so-called freedom a few times a year for a couple of hours. Nothing noteworthy as far as my patriotism is concerned – me thinks.  Sure, I have the Szczerbiec, a ryngraf, a saber, and a flag hanging on the wall in my room, but these are symbols of our history. And apart from those symbols there’s also a Tunisian dagger, an Irish rosary, and a Native American Medicine Wheel. This isn’t a manifestation of “we’re the best”, “let’s go kill us some _____”, “proud to be Polish”, and other things which people may or may not associate with patriotism. All are symbols, which refer back to history – that of Poles, or other peoples. Furthermore, my sense of pride deals with not of being (Polish), but of knowing. Some people don’t take pride (although they surely know more than me), and that’s alright as well. You can’t find your way about in that little web, fine. But don’t disallow others from finding their place in there. Which reminds me of a certain quote:

“I don't get all choked up about yellow ribbons and American flags. I see them as symbols, and I leave them to the symbol-minded. ”, said George Carlin one day on his HBO Special Jammin' in New York in 1992. True enough, a great man, and my personal favorite amongst people who had anything to say in the 20th century, but aren’t we all symbol-minded, George? Beginning with written language… one of your favorite domains. 

People who thought that the March was going to attract only baldheaded – nomen omen – eagles, clad in bomber jackets, braces, and heavy boots, whilst carrying banners with swastikas, and chanting anti-Semitic, racist, xenophobic (?), and “vulgar” slogans, thought wrong. This isn’t to say that there weren’t any skinheads present at the March. Let’s not get out of touch with reality here. But this wasn’t the dominant force. Throughout the 2+ hour March, I was surrounded by families, elderly people who survived more than  one can imagine, football fans, religious devotees, skinheads, atheists, rockers, hip-hoppers, metalheads, bikers, and – yes, I saved the best for last – these so-called foreigners who we’re so afraid of and, most importantly, hate. Blacks, Orientals, and ‘others’ could be seen walking, or partaking (one black man was in a wheelchair with a “POLSKA” scarf around his neck) in the March. Strangely enough, they weren’t hanged, burned at the stake, lynched, raped, etc. I have no idea how we let them slip through the March like that. Perhaps somebody paid off the evil fascist-racist-patridiotic Polaks to not beat on the hired stand-ins? Who knows? :)

Of course, there were incidents – or more like situations – where I didn’t agree  with what somebody was saying, chanting, or whatnot. But isn’t that what democrazy is all about? Some 40 year old shouted “Jebać Żydów” (“Fuck the Jews”) twice, and everybody ignored him. Nobody picked up on this, and continued on their way. Perhaps there were other incidents –since I couldn’t be everywhere in the ~20, 000 crowd March – but this does not mean that it represented the majority who attended. If it does, then I guess every nation in the world is guilty of racism, xenophobia, and all of the other ‘-isms’ and ‘-obias’ out there pertaining to humans, animals, and the like, since every society has a radical minority. Regardless of how big, outspoken, and visible that minority may be. 

One thing which really made an impression on me, was the amount of football fans who were sporting their colors. Fanatics from all across Poland came to Warsaw, and all of their (very) personal business was set aside. Lech fans next to Legia fans, Widzew fans next to ŁKS fans, Cracovia fans next to Jagiellonia fans, and so on. All of our personal differences set aside, in order to commemorate Poland’s day of Independence (or what’s left of it). But people would much rather ignore that theme. It’s more important to focus on the few minutes of excessive violence which took place. Of course, it goes without saying, that all of these football fans aren’t going to start loving each other in one big hippy parade now. However, it does present the certain values which others either do not want to understand, or cannot understand. Whatever the weather, cheers to seeing them all out there!

As stated earlier, all of this does not mean that I agreed with everything that was chanted, sung, or whatnot at the March. Nor does this mean that I saw eye-to-eye with all of the attendees. It was a March of people commemorating a very specific date in Polish history (one of the few we have, which are joyous), not a March of “all-thinkers-alike”. I don't condone the incidents which took place on the Constitution Square, not for the fact that the Police was attacked, but for the sheer fact that once again, a part of my city has been destroyed. However, I also take into consideration the circumstances under which all of this occurred. Somebody allowed for a peaceful March to be blocked. Somebody allowed for those blocking the March to be in close vicinity of tens of aggressive hotheads. Somebody called for German back up of aggressive leftist activists interested only in one thing – fighting. Somebody praised the “oh-so-peaceful” Antifa as being the only real alternative, calling upon them (even last year) to not let the March pass “by any means necessary”. As my professor at Humber College once said, those who assume differently, make an ASS out of U and ME…

…or are just too naïve in their own (narrow) mind frame.

On a side note, since this is a post relating to the celebration of independence, it should be remembered that independence comes from the word independent, which - in 1808 - was defined as "person not acting as part of a political party".

I apologize if this post seems like another mish-mash of ideas, but I wrote this throughout my work day, in between different breaks. 

Thanks for the awesome March. Hope it’s even better next year.