ENDANGERED FATE OF PENSIONERS
Fr. IRENEUSZ SKUBIŚ
I remember a conversation in the 80s of the previous century with a pensioner who said that she wanted her daughter to retire at that time because she would have had a peaceful life as her mother, she would have had an assured existence and she would have been happy. The beautiful lady Anna is not alive now and her daughter is a pensioner in fact – but there is a problem today, which did not practically exist for us at that time: Today people live longer, in school there are less children and we are in danger of demographic decrease and it is impossible not to consider it if we are thinking about the future of our nation. And every authority which takes on the responsibility for the country and the nation should be aware of it. Otherwise, the time of the authority is a waste of years.
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński emphasized how important is ‘everything which composes Poland’. Everybody, who takes over the authority, should be responsible for it. It seems that the Polish society is not still prepared for a good discussion on holding the authority, its priority projects, discussion which would concern particular solutions. As it is known, something may be called democratic but it maintains only a spoken name which has nothing in common with democracy.
We also often notice some big emptiness of democracy, that it is inefficient, or maybe even dishonest and unjust. We refer to it and we would like to make suitable choices but are these suitable choices prepared well by leaders, intellectual and moral elites? This question is asked very often: where are our elites? It does not concern those who are shown on TV and who are given applause. The interwar period in Poland showed us people of different elite. These excellent educated statesmen had a lot to say not only in the country but also in the international forum - like, among the others, Ignacy Paderewski. Such people led Poland to beautiful days and also to excellent economic results. Comparing today the interwar period in Poland with what happened after 1989, we notice that we lack people who would genuinely lead our nation. And we are still far from what we could say that there are Polish elites – we rather say: authority elites. After the Smoleńsk catastrophe we can say that Polish elites have already been completely destroyed. And we are looking towards the future from these ruins, and we are thinking what will be with the young generation of Poles who will govern over their souls and what elections there will be. People’s minds have been confused so easily and so many of them voted for a movement which is raising much concern. And we are asking this question more frequently: what will be with Poland? Today everybody is worried by the question about our pensions as we all work hard to live with dignity at our older age and not to burden our relatives with the cost of our life. However, the country does not guarantee any of them to us today, but there more and more services for which it is not known where to find money. Logically looking – something is not all right here! There is no difficulty in taking away last pennies from citizens. It is all about governing the country in such a way that everybody would live better, and those who have already worked all their years would have their assured existence till the last moments of their life. Nobody is waiting for luxuries here – we only need thinking about every human being and good attitude towards governing the country. A good authority must love its country and its every citizen at every time. It is not authority which is important but – the nation is the most important. In the resources of the democratic order there are also different rules, like a referendum. On the one hand, democracy gives some general norms for right decisions, but on the other hand – it also gives votes to everybody, so that not only those who have won election but also the others could have an influence on many important decisions. Somebody who cannot respect it, cannot respect the rules of real democracy either.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 10/2012