[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PULASKI DAY SPEECH BY JUSTICE AURELIA PUCINSKI

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MIKE QUIGLEY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 11, 2025

       Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the 
     following remarks made by Justice Aurelia Pucinski on Pulaski 
     Day, March 3, 2025, at the Polish Museum of America in 
     Chicago.
       We celebrate Casimir Pulaski as twice a hero. First, he 
     sacrificed everything: his home, his family, his freedom, 
     fighting the evil Czar of Russia to protect his beloved 
     Poland. Then he came here, to help the American Colonists 
     fight the tyranny of King George. He died for our freedom and 
     liberty. It was worth his life. It was everything.


                liberty: the core of our polish identity

       We've had other Polish heroes in America. The Polonians who 
     came to the shores of Jamestown with Captain John Smith in 
     1609, not knowing what in the world they faced, but knowing 
     it was better than the life they left behind. Those brave 
     glassmakers led the first labor strike in the new colony for 
     the right to vote and own land: Liberty. They fought for it 
     and won.
       Thaddeus Kosciuszko joined our Revolution for the 
     principles of freedom from tyranny and the goal of 
     independence: both values etched into the heart of every 
     Pole. So fiercely did he believe in liberty that he provided 
     in his will for the freedom of slaves.
       There are more modem heroes too: Thaddeus Senzimer, the 
     inventor of modern steel techniques. Henry Magnuski, who 
     developed the WWII walkie talkies that became out modern 
     cellphones. Paul Baran, an internet pioneer. Steve Wozniak, 
     the co-founder of Apple. Roman Pucinski, who had to fight 
     tooth and nail to get Black Boxes into all commercial 
     airplanes.
       Poles started coming to Chicago in 1830. By 1920 there were 
     400,000 in Chicago. Today there are 900,000 people of Polish 
     heritage in Cook County.
       The first and largest immigration was between 1850-1920. 
     Then huge numbers of immigrants were displaced by World War 
     II. Many left in the 1980's after martial law was declared in 
     Poland and the struggle to bring democracy to Poland took new 
     strength from ``Solidarity.''
       John Napieralski, is believed to be the first Pole in 
     Chicago, arriving around 1830. He dreamed of a vibrant 
     Polonia in our City. He might have predicted the hard-working 
     men and women of Polonia building neighborhoods anchored by 
     beautiful churches: St. Stanislaus Kostka, Holy Trinity, St. 
     Adalbert, St. Mary of the Angels, St. John Cantius and so 
     many more.
       We have benefitted from major Polish language newspapers, a 
     vibrant Polish theater, radio and now TV community. And our 
     truly remarkable Polish organizations: the Polish Museum, the 
     Polish Roman Catholic Union the Polish National Alliance, the 
     Polish American Congress the Highlanders, the Alliance of 
     Polish Clubs, the Legion of Young Polish Women, our hundreds 
     of Polish schools and more.
       Generations of Poles have come to Chicago. A very few of us 
     actually remember the horrors of the Nazi invasion of Poland, 
     the death and destruction of Nazi occupation, the cruelty of 
     war, the horror of Russian genocide at Katyn, the death of 
     freedom under the new Russian czars of communism. But if we 
     are not old enough to actually remember it, we certainly have 
     heard the stories from family, or read the history.
       Whether your family came here in 1830 or later we are here 
     because someone in our family decided to leave behind the 
     life of uncertainty and oppression for a life of opportunity 
     and freedom. To seek free speech, economic opportunity, 
     freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of press 
     and most important, the freedom of ideas. Things that are 
     unreachable in nations under Russian influence. Would we 
     trade our freedoms here for the slow death of the new 
     communism?
       Poland is democratic and free now. Some of us plan to 
     return, and why not? It is a beautiful country. How much do 
     we want to keep it free? What about the nations in the former 
     Soviet bloc?


                         what would pulaski do?

       Those who left that life behind are heroes too. They forged 
     for us the opportunities we enjoy here. They gave us freedom. 
     They gave us liberty. They gave us everything. We honor those 
     who fought to get here. We recognize that some of us did it 
     ourselves. Some of us rest on the shoulders of those who made 
     the choice to leave that empty life behind. But no matter 
     what the history of your family, it requires that we always 
     remember what we left behind and why.

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