Polonia Meets With Sejm Deputies At Consulate
At Poland’s Consulate General in NYC
By John Czop
At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 approximately 70 Polish Americans from Metropolitan New York City met with six Deputies of the Sejm, the Lower House of Poland’s National Assembly, at the Polish Consulate located in the elegant De Lamar mansion in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. The following Deputies met with Polonia:
1. Pawel Bejda, a leading member of the Third Way–Polish People’s Party, organized in April 2023 as an alternative to both Truth and Justice and Civic Platform, who serves as Secretary of State at the Ministry of National Defense;
2.Konrad Frysztak, a member of Civic Platform;
3. Konga Gajewska, a member of Civic Platform;
4.Wanda Nowicka, a member of New Left, who is an advocate for women’s sexual and reproductive health, human rights, and equality;
5. Miroslaw Suchon, leader of POLAND 2050– Third Way
6. Krzysztof Truskolaski, Civic Platform, who represents Bialystok near the Suwalki Gap, where Russia has threatened to invade in order to link Kaliningrad Oblast with the Russian Federation.
Photo Caption: Consul General Adrian Kubicki, Polish American Congress – National Vice-President for Polish Affairs Bozena Kaminski, and Secretary of State at the Ministry of National Defense Pawel Bejda.
Readers recall that a leading member of Truth and Justice, who now serves in the European Parliament and is a member of the Conservatives and Reformers Parliamentary Group, and who was Poland’s first female Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anna Fotyga, met with Polonia on Sunday evening March 3, 2024 at Our Lady Queen Of Poland Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, DC. Mr. Roman Korzan, a National Director of the Polish American Congress’s Washington, DC Metro Division, organized this meeting which featured participation via ZOOM.
In a nutshell, the key message of both these meetings with Polish legislators is: Polish Americans must influence their members of Congress to support Ukraine against Russian aggression. This is the consensus position of the Polish legislators who met with Polonia. Poland is united in support of Ukraine, and by extension, in favor of renewing our international system of collective security. Our Polish legislators call on us Polish Americans to persuade Congress to give Ukraine the money and defense equipment to defend herself against Russian aggression.
At the meeting at Poland’s Consulate General, Mrs. Bozena Kaminski, the National Vice-President for Polish Affairs of the Polish American Congress, made it clear that support for Ukraine has been the policy of America’s top advocacy organization for Poland. She observed that the Polish American Congress represents the interests of over 10 million Polish Americans and others who are convinced that America and Poland have been partners in freedom over the past 250 years. Today, America and Poland stand together for freedom against the Kremlin’s authoritarianism. She said that she needs to make this clear because recently some sections of Poland’s press have WRONGLY reported that the Polish American Congress supports Putin’s war against Ukraine. Vice-President Kaminski said that this is just NOT true, and that Ukraine must win. Russia can NOT be permitted to change with armed force internationally recognized borders.
Consul General Kubicki’s observations concluded the meeting with the six Polish Sejm Deputies. He began by reminding us that Poland’s Consulate General was the first to raise Ukraine’s flag. The Consul General said that Russia’s war against Ukraine is of world historical importance. It is NOT just about Ukraine, it is about re-establishing a rules based international system after Russia’s serial violations of collective security.
We, Polish Americans, must let our members of Congress know that America must help Ukraine.
