ANTONI MACIEREWICZ – A PATRIOT OF THE YEAR
MAŁGORZATA CZEKAJ
– This is not sacrifice, nor effort. Being able to serve to independent Poland is a privilege. There are not any such obstacles which it is not worth overcoming – Antoni Macierewicz, a national defence minister said, when receiving the Award named Kazimierz the Renovator ‘Patriot of the Year 2016’, granted to him by the group of the White Raven during the Second Day of Patriot in Cracow
The genuine statuette of the Eagle from the times of the Duchy of Warsaw was given to the politician of the Law and Justice Party in acknowledgment for his previous service to independent Polish Republic. – Kazimierz the Renovator was a great ruler, maybe not so appreciated today. He resigned from the western career and returned to Poland which was poor and destroyed – explained Leszek Sosnowski, the chairman of the White Raven. – Today, similarly as at the times of the Duchy of Warsaw, there is also time for renewing Poland: in a material and spiritual way. On this way of renewing the country we meet Antoni Macierewicz…
Words teach, examples attract
The ceremony was begun with singing ‘Rota’. In the Cracow Opera also the national hymn was sung. Minister Macierewicz thanked people from his family, who had formed his patriotism: mother Maria, sister Barbara, wife Hanna, grandfather Adam and father Zdzisław, and also people from political and social life: the prime minister Jan Olszewski and Fr. Tadeusz Rydzyk CSsR. – Only courage in the name of values passed us by our fathers, has a right to be named as creating courage and allows us to think about Poland as a great nation, which has mission to fulfill – said minister Macierewicz.
Merits of the chief of the National Defence Ministry was presented in the laudation by prof. Janusz Kawecki, a new member of the National Mass Media Council, a friend of the White Raven group. Antoni Macierewicz was born on 3 August 1948. As prof. Kawecki emphasized, upbringing of young Antoni in Homeland had been influenced by three groups: family, school and scouting. An important event in the life of the future politician was the year 1965 when he was relegated from the secondary school for his refusal to condemn the message of Polish bishops to German bishops during a school assembly. Having changed his school, he passed his secondary leaving examination in XLII Secondary School named Maria Konopnicka in Warsaw and began studies during which he got engaged in opposition activity (among the others, by taking part in students’ strikes in 1968, establishing the Independence League).
Later events, academic work, interleaved with frequent arrests, were defined by prof. Kawecki as physical law connecting the action and reaction. The activity of the future chief of the National Defence Ministry of that time, was, among the others: co-organizing help for repressed workers, establishing Workers’ Defence Committee, publishing the independence newspaper ‘Voice’ or participating in hunger strike in the church of the Holy Cross. Prof. Kawecki also mentioned the activity of Antoni Macierewicz in the Third Polish Republic, as continued serving to the truth and Homeland, and he also mentioned a reform of intelligence services or establishing the parliamentary commission to explain causes of the catastrophe at Smoleńsk. All this decided about awarding the current minster of the national defence the title ‘Patriot of the Year 2016’.
Patriotism is not only great matter
There is no patriotism without courage – said prof. Andrzej Nowak, who was at the helm of the jury granting the award. He referred to Hector as the patron of courage and a defender of Troy. In the history of Poland defence, following the example of St. Wojciech, there is also a duty of guarding the Christian order. – This courage can be sold for the proverbial bowl of lentils, at the price of easier life without undertaking any challenges. And here we need the virtue of courage in order to oppose to what seems stronger and bigger, in the name of the moral order, which is bigger and stronger than the biggest evil.
Undoubtedly, this road has already been discovered by those who arrived here on 22 October this year, in order to participate in the Second Day of the Patriot, organized in the headquarter of the Cracow Opera. The ceremony was preceded by: a fair of the White Raven books, meetings with authors and a cycle of lectures on law, culture and economy. – Patriotism is not only great matter like politics or defence of the country, but also what we can take care of every day, for example, taking care of the beauty of our mother tongue, knowledge of history or convincing those who are not interested in it, telling them that it is worth getting engaged in this project whose name is Poland – it was noted by a student of the Pedagogical University and who was attracted to participate in the event by a lecture of prof. Nowak. And let these words be inspiration for us.
AA
„Niedziela” 44/2016