4th of July, Let Us All Celebrate

John, this message is very personal.

Our friends in the United States will are celebrating their Independence Day.

I am a daughter of the country, which produced two great heroes for the fight of independence of the United States of America.

One of them, General Kazimierz Pulaski, "Father of the US Cavalry", fell in a battle at Savannah. Pulaski fled Poland after the Russians arrested and killed his father for defending Poland against the aggressive Russian forces. In Paris he met Benjamin Franklin. The rest is American history.

I was actually very nice surprised when I came the very first time to US to Chicago and found out that one of the major streets there is called Pulaski. The Americans did not forget, thank you.

The other was general Tadeusz Kosciuszko. After the American independence was won, he was given great honours and retirement, which he did not take. He came back to Poland to take a lead in our fight for freedom, he was leading the
Kosciuszko Resurrection, a fight that was destined to fail and soon after Poland was no more taken off the world maps for over 100 years.

Then after the World War II Poland lost its independence to Soviets for the second time. Though Poland was a called independent country, the Soviets did not allow us to be fully free and fully us.

I was born under the Soviet manipulative influence. I grew up and became a young woman in those times. The thought of love of freedom has never left the Polish spirit and many times we looked at the Americans as our example.

Some of you might remember 1980 and the Solidarity movement. That led slowly to Polish independence. This though happened after I left my country.

So even the 4th of July is American holiday, it is universal celebration: a celebration for free and happy human spirit. We ALL were born free. Let us do not forget that and let us rejoice with our American friends when they celebrate one of their greatest holidays.

God bless America.