Posted on 05/21/2006 11:58:09 AM PDT by lizol
Chicago Poles out the stops for Constitution Day parade
By Lisa Everitt Special to The Denver Post
Two weekends ago, I was stuck in traffic in a cab on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. All the stoplights were flashing red, and police wardens were waving crowds through the intersections and into Grant Park for the annual Polish parade.
The Lexis SUV in front of us was flying three flags: two Polish flags, one Stars and Stripes.
"My grandmother came here from Poland," the cabbie said. "She made history. She went to work for the Bell System, as an operator.
"She was the first telephone Pole."
I couldn't read the name on his medallion, but he said his daughter lives in Littleton and is a true-blue Cubbies fan who named her kids Addison and Clark. So, if you're reading this, your dad looks good and is still making groaner jokes.
Chicago nearly pegs the meter on the Polishness scale, with more Polish speakers than Krakow, Poland's second-largest city. Only Warsaw has more Poles than Chicago.
A quarter-million people come out these days for the parade, which runs through Grant Park along Columbus Drive. The Polish Constitution Day Parade has been held for 115 years in Chicago, gradually moving from a neighborhood shindig in Humboldt Park on the near northwest side into a citywide celebration with pride of place along Lake Michigan.
An early democracy
The Polish Constitution was established May 3, 1791, only the second democratic constitution in the world, right behind the United States. That government lasted only four years, and the Polish people have had their share of being kicked around by superpowers. Every May 3 they wave the Orzel Bialy, the White Eagle, and proclaim that Polonia - the Polish Nation - is still here. Three years ago, we stumbled onto the parade entirely by accident.
Doug's mother went to college and art school in Chicago, and frequent visits were a hallmark of his childhood. On our first trip together, the Art Institute was a required stop to show me the paintings he had grown up with.
We walked out the back door of the Institute right into the teeth of the parade: a beer truck festooned with flags and blaring Polish pop music, little girls in flowery costumes, boogeying high schoolers wearing Team Polska football scarves, the Holy Trinity Parish marching band, the Polish American Police Association, International Polish Nurses and Midwives Association and various Polish language schools where kids spend Saturdays learning their native tongue.
All around us were people in red and white waving red-and-white flags, hoisting their little red-and-white clad grandkids onto their shoulders to wave at the guy driving the beer truck.
Doug turned to me with an enormous grin and said, "Is this a great country or what?"
In industrial southern Connecticut, most of my friends' grandparents were first- or second-generation European immigrants who lived in "the neighborhood" in Waterbury or New Haven, where each ethnic group had its own church, school, eating places, stores and social clubs.
But to my German-surnamed father, whose World War II experience flying bombing runs over Karlsruhe was still relatively fresh, being German was a problem, not a heritage to brag about. So I had nothing more ethnic to share with my friends than grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies. D'Amato took pity on me one weekend and enlisted her mother to teach me how to make tomato gravy.
Because I participated only in the traffic jam and missed the actual parade this year, I checked it out later online and learned a lot from the commentary of Justine Jablonska, who said she had been part of the parade since age 6. Despite being afraid to go over the river bridges on State Street, she had marched with the Polish Scouts down one of the old parade routes in hand-embroidered traditional dress.
"When you wear them you just feel so beautiful and so special because you know it's a part of your heritage," she said of the elaborate costumes.
Chicago's primary Polish neighborhood is Bucktown/Wicker Park, now a happy stew of immigrant old and yuppie new, near the intersection of North, Milwaukee and Damen avenues. Here you can visit the Polish Museum at 984 N. Milwaukee Ave. to see Paderewski's piano, or wander the streets, listen to the voices and munch on poppyseed cake.
But who needs a museum when it's a beautiful Saturday morning and the culture is alive and well near the Buckingham Fountain, eating a kielbasa and waving at the Channel 7 float, topped with anchorwoman Linda Yu, flying the red-and-white Polish colors?
Is this a great country, or what?
Lizol, this was a beautiful piece. Does anybody know, since the Polish people have always loved freedom, do they vote conservative?
I really don't know.
As far as I know - some time ago Polish Americans used to vote democratic - just like other Catholics in U.S.(am I right?).
But it has changed today, I suppose.
Does any American FReeper with Polish roots know the answer to the question asked in post #2?
From my experience, it depends on the cohort to which they belong. Post-war Polish immigrants and their children, mostly educated professionals fleeing communism, always tended to vote Republican. Pre-war immigrants and their descendants, largely working class and less aware of the evils of communism, tended to behave like other white Catholic ethnic groups: supporting democrats until recently, but now trending Republican.
I'm not Polish, but if I'm not mistaken the current government in Poland is conservative. As for the Polish Americans in Chicago, apparently they have no problems with repeatedly electing socialist mayors.
At least in my experience, as a Polish-American living in another area with a large Polish population (Scranton PA area), Polish-Americans, especially the older generation, are old-fashioned Democrats. Pro-life, religious, strong on family values and national defense, but also strong supporters of unions and government helping those down on their luck. They vote Democrat because their parents voted Democrat, and they honestly don't realize what the Democratic party has become. But that's changing, and they're slowly coming into the fold around here.
I love the Poles. Great music. A noble people. Most conservatives have a strong emotional connection to the Polish people, probably because of their long struggle for freedom and their sufferings because of it. Honestly, I cried the first time I read about the Katyn Forest massacre.
Freepers, if you haven't read about that WWII tragedy, look it up:
This American of Polish descent is a conservative and so are my parents whose parents all came from Poland.
Notice how the conversations all took place in English no translator needed.
Sorry, I just washed my keyboard and can't do a thing with it . . . that address for the Katyn Forest massacre is:
http://www.geocities.com/katyn.geo/
I meant myself. It's a way of speaking about yourself called "third person".
OK, got it :-)
I don't know about generally, but in 1980 there was a much-remarked phenomenon of blue-collar Polish-Americans in the Detroit area, who had long supported Democrats, instead supporting Ronaldus Magnus. They were called "Reagan Democrats" and were found in all of the Polish areas including Hamtramck (of course). I lived in Ann Arbor at the time (and was a young leftie) and at all of the festivals and street fairs, etc. there would be Polish-American groups selling kielbasa and Polish beer to raise funds in support of Solidarity. Well, they roped me in with the dogs and suds and helped plant a conservative seed that has bloomed within me. Now I am a registered Republican, I love and have visited Poland, and my favorite President of my lifetime is Ronald Wilson Reagan. Thanks, guys, and may God bless Poland! Google the terms ("Reagan democrats" Polish) for more details on the politics.
Freedom-loving Poles recognized one of their own.
Polish HERE! Well 1/2 - the other is 1/2 German and hale from the Northwest side of Chicago. The Polish side IS conservative and votes republican.
Ping!
Amen.
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