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A Prayer for Veteran’s Day

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We thank Thee, Lord, for America, our home. We bless Thee for the liberty, the opportunity, and the abundance we share. But above all we praise Thee for the traditions which have made our country great, and for the patriots who have laid the foundations through faith, courage, and self-sacrifice. Teach us in our own day the meaning of citizenship, and help us to be faithful stewards of the responsibility which Thou entrusted to us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — A Prayer for our Country from A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church

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A Prayer for Veteran’s Day

We thank Thee, Lord, for America, our home. We bless Thee for the liberty, the opportunity, and the abundance we share. But above all we praise Thee for the traditions which have made our country great, and for the patriots who have laid the foundations through faith, courage, and self-sacrifice. Teach us in our own day the meaning of citizenship, and help us to be faithful stewards of the responsibility which Thou entrusted to us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — A Prayer for our Country from A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church

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Reflection for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

I’ve been drafted!
I will go and serve.

“‘Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.'”

The widow of Zarephath and the widow who contributed to the treasury both did incredible acts of charity. Both gave totally of themselves for the good of others. They gave all they had, not out of surplus. In their giving they placed their faith in the God who provides, God who the psalmist says:

…keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets captives free, gives sight to the blind, raises up those who were bowed down, loves the just, protects strangers, who sustains the fatherless and the widow.

As we reflect today, on this Veterans Day we should recall that our veterans, our service men and women have done exactly the same. Even if wealthy, they decided to place their all on the line to serve – not just their country – but the cause of freedom for their brothers and sisters.

Whatever we do, we have the God given freedom to decide. When drafted, we might choose to go, just because of the law. When we are confronted with Jesus’ command to love and serve others, whether we are clergy or laity, we may follow His commandments just because we are afraid of God’s punishment. That may be sufficient – to follow the law, or to do because we are afraid of punishment, but our faith calls us to do these things out of a greater purpose.

That purpose is God’s call to love, to lean on Him who is our protector, advocate, strength, and teacher.

When we decide to ‘go and serve,’ to give our all, we fulfill the commandment of love – loving God by doing His will and loving our brothers and sisters to the point of sacrificing ourselves for them.

The widows did that. The widow chose to prepare bread and give water to Elijah even though she and her son would be left with almost nothing. The widow gave her last pennies to the treasury for charity.

Jesus had portrayed the religious leaders who feigned piety; accepted honor from people, and stole from widows as living without love, without even acting out of obligation to the law or fear of the Lord. They chose wrongly – and served themselves, not love.

Our call is to live like our veterans, in love and service toward others – and to do so out of love. Let us honor them for their right choice and choose rightly ourselves.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , , , , ,

On Veteran’s Day

For my dad, grandfather, and all our Veterans. May their service and sacrifice be honored.

My dad, Louis T. Konicki at Mainz-Bischofshein - part of the post WWII occupying forces

Our veterans are now returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, and of course are greeted with initial joy. Then they face the search for work and the struggle with the horrors they have faced. They face a lack of adequate physical and mental health care. As to jobs, what are our veterans finding? An extraordinarily difficult job market with an unemployment rate for combat-age veterans at 17.5% in New York State, 13.3% nationally.

Dr. John Guzlowski reflects in November 11, 1918–The Day World War I Ended

I first heard of World War I when we came to America as Displaced Persons in 1951. We were refugees after World War II, and we moved into a basement apartment on Hamilton Street in Chicago.

Our landlord was a veteran of the First World War. He was a Polish American named Ponchek. He was also a drunk, but that wasn’t anything special. There were a lot of drunks around. What made Ponchek special was that he had a steel plate in his head. As a kid and a recent immigrant to America, he had been drafted and sent to France to stop the Germans who were trying to rip France apart and shove it into the Atlantic. He ended up in the trenches in France in late October fighting the Germans, and a bullet took off the top of his head. The doctors cut away what bone they could, cleaned out the wound, and screwed a steel plate into the skull bone.

This fascinated me when I was a kid. I wondered about that plate, and what it felt like. Did Ponchek always feel a weight pressing down on his head? Was it like wearing a steel hat? A steel helmet? And I wondered what they covered the plate with. Skin? And where did it come from? Was it his skin or someone else’s? I never could ask.

Like a lot of the veterans I knew, he was frightening. He wasn’t a guy you wanted to spend a lot of time talking to.

Veterans were men who limped. They dragged their legs behind them like Lon Chaney in the Mummy movie. They were men who had wooden legs that creaked when they walked past you and the other kids sitting on the stoop. These veterans had no arms or only one arm, or were missing fingers or hands, or ears.

My dad, a guy who lost his left eye when he was clubbed by a Nazi guard in a concentration camp, used to go to a bar where the owner had a black, shiny rubber hand. He lost his real hand during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 when he shoved a homemade grenade into the steel treads of a German tank. The black rubber hand was like some kind of weird toy. Sometimes, it looked like a black fist, sometimes it looked like an eight ball.

Sometimes, a vet without arms or legs sat on the sidewalk in front of this bar. He had a cloth hat in front of him, and he was selling pencils. He’d sit there smiling, making chit chat with the guys walking in and out of the bar. You’d toss him a nickel, and you could take a pencil, but most guys didn’t. Who needs a pencil?…

A musical reflection – “Sargent Mackenzie”

Original Scottish Version

Lay me doon in the caul caul groon
Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun
Lay me doon in the caul caul groon
Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun

When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid

Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

Ains a year say a prayer faur me
Close yir een an remember me

Nair mair shall a see the sun
For a fell tae a Germans gun

Lay me doon in the caul caul groon
Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun

Lay me doon in the caul caul groon
Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun

Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun

English Translation

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

When they come I will stand my ground
Stand my ground I’ll not be afraid

Thoughts of home take away my fear
Sweat and blood hide my veil of tears

Once a year say a prayer for me
Close your eyes and remember me

Never more shall I see the sun
For I fell to a Germans gun

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

Where before many more have gone.

Christian Witness, PNCC

On Veterans’ Day

Remembering my dad and grandpa, both proud to have served, and who were active in their American Legion Post – Adam Plewacki Post No 799 in Buffalo, New York. My grandfather was always there for honor duty service.

My dad in Mainz-Bischofshein
My dad, May 1945, Gernrode, Germany

Therefore the moment will come, and come it must, even as after years of boyhood comes manhood and to “knights” the plow and the hammer, except that, judging from the shaping of human affairs, our heroes, emerging from the cottages of farmers and laborers, or the children of homeless hirelings, will sweat and will spill their blood not for kings, not in the name of popes, not for the privileges and rights of the few or of single classes, as did once our knightly predecessors under Warna, Vienna and Smolensk, but they will go to do battle for their freedom and for the rights of man. — Bishop Franciszek Hodur (as W. Warega) in New Roads (Nowe Drogi), Chapter 6, para. 20 from Hodur, A Compilation of Selected Translations by Theodore L. Zawistowski

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Our veterans

From Hudson Reporter: Keeping the traditions alive: Veterans’ posts seek younger vets

Bayonne has a long history of being one of the most patriotic cities in America. Men and, more recently, women from Bayonne have often been among the first to volunteer when the nation faces a military threat. Testifying to this is the fact that the city has 12 active veterans’ posts.

Yet, as patriotic as Bayonne is —“ with men and women still shipping out from Bayonne to help defend the country —“ membership in these posts is declining. This is because most of the members of these posts are getting old or dying off, and newer veterans from wars such as Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan are not joining.

While some of the posts still have a number of members on their rolls, they often operate with a core group who attend meetings regularly and bear the burden of civic events.

—We know there are younger veterans in town, and we’re trying to get them to join,— said Frank Perrucci, a World War II veteran.

National trend

This is, unfortunately, a national trend that has been going on since the late 1980s.

Veterans groups like those in Bayonne flourished after World War II, when posts served as a social network for those returning home from war, where men who had gone through similar experiences could gather and offer support for each other. But several studies done since the 1990s seem to indicate the these social networks are less appealing to younger veterans, even though these groups tend to form the backbone of lobbying efforts for veterans rights.

—The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars are the two biggest organizations in the country, and they fight for veterans’ benefits whenever Congress wants to cut them,— said Perrucci. —Posts like those in Bayonne are needed to support that effort.—

The bulk of members of these organizations come from World War II and the Korean War. Though some Vietnam War veterans have joined in recent years, many of these men and women are also beginning to age —“ most now in their 50s and 60s.

The most recent study done by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs said there are wide social gaps between younger and older veterans that appear to discourage membership. Older veterans groups, the study showed, tended to center around a tavern-like setting, where veterans play pool, trade stories and such, while younger veterans appear to want a setting where they can set up a laptop, drink coffee or play video games.

More losses

Although less an issue in Bayonne —“ where younger veterans received a warmer welcome coming home from wars over seas —“ in many parts of the country, the report said, older veterans groups actually closed their doors to homecoming veterans, an exile that lasted almost 20 years in some cases, creating an even greater social gap between younger and older veterans.

The study, which concluded in 2002, showed that almost half the veterans groups saw a deep dip in membership during the late 1990s, as the population of older veterans died off.

—We lost two veterans just this week,— Perrucci said on Nov. 4, when he and other veterans gathered for the wake of Frank Sullivan.

The study shows that as the number of World War II veterans dwindle, so does membership in the VFW and American Legion.

Federal statistics show that American Legion and VFW membership nationally declined 24 percent to 3.9 million, from 1995 to 1998…

Veteran’s Posts, much like other social clubs, are also falling prey to a narrowing of interests and the over specialization of group membership. Rather than focusing on the common interests of all concerned, likely members are advocating for their particular needs alone (and this includes older, long standing members).

If we look at the wider good achieved through the social linkages created in these clubs we recognize their benefit. Traditionally, groups like the Moose, Elks, Lions, and Eagles as well as veteran’s organizations brought together people from various social strata. They worked for each other, for what they held in common, and did a whole lot of good for the wider community. Hopefully people will recognize that what they hold in common is far greater than the difference between the tavern and coffee club lifestyles. There is room for everyone because in unity there is strength.

If you are interested in working together contact the VFW, American Legion, DAV, or the Polish Legion of American Veterans.

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Veterans program – recording oral histories

My alma mater, Canisius College, will host the New York State Veterans Oral History Program on Tuesday-Thursday May 6th, 7th, and 8th at its archives.

Former New York Governor George Pataki established the program on Veterans’ Day 2000 to preserve the story of New York’s veterans in their own words for future generations. At the time the Governor noted, “The recollections and experiences of New York’s veterans are a precious and irreplaceable resource…(the veterans’) history is our state’s history.”

War has played an important part in the lives of many alums. This project will offer the opportunity for veterans and civilians who worked in the “war effort” of any war -World War II, Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as involvement in Kosovo or the Falkland Islands-to share their memories. Participants will receive a DVD of their oral history, which will be catalogued in the Canisius Archives, as well as the New York State Military Museum & Veterans Research Center.

Michael Russert, Military Historian, New York State Museum & Veterans Research Center will conduct the interviews.

To schedule an appointment or for more information please contact Kathleen DeLaney, Archives Coordinator, at 716-888-2530.

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