MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR PROCLAIMS FIRST
"POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS DAY" IN THE COMMONWEALTH,
THUS MAKING IT THE FIRST OF ITS TYPE IN THE NATION

In an action that henceforth will be held as a benchmark achievement for the Polish American Congress in Massachusetts, Governor Deval L. Patrick will proclaim April 30, 2008 to be POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS DAY in the Commonwealth. This is the third in a series of politically-related activities initiated by Dean Anthony J. Bajdek, PAC National Vice President for American Affairs and President of the Polish American Congress of Eastern Massachusetts. The realization of the Proclamation will serve as a Polish American Congress model of grass-roots activism on the level of state government. The Proclamation is conspicuous in that it focuses on the Polish American Congress itself and recognizes national and local Polish American Congress achievements.

The Governor's Proclamation would not have occurred without the support of a "Polish Caucus" in the state legislature. The Caucus itself was created in February 2007 during a meeting in the State House between interested legislators, Dean Bajdek, and Joseph Kos, President of the Western Massachusetts Division of the Polish American Congress.

The genesis of the Caucus would not have occurred without the passage of the first-in-the-nation Visa Waiver for Poland Joint Resolution in May 2004 by the Massachusetts legislature, after Bajdek had presented "boilerplate" wording for the Resolution to interested legislators.

It is believed that the POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS DAY proclamation in Massachusetts is the first-ever to be issued that focuses on the Polish American Congress by either an executive or legislative branch of state government in the United States.

The draft of the Resolution, being the work of Dean Bajdek, reads as follows:

WHEREAS, The Polish American Congress was established nationally in 1944 to represent the international and domestic concerns of Americans of Polish descent before the government of the United States, and

WHEREAS, The Polish American Congress sought to sustain hopes for freedom of the people of Poland as the years of terror and suffering under brutal Nazi German oppression were ending , only to be followed by another oppressive communist government imposed by Soviet Russia, and

WHEREAS, The Polish American Congress resolutely articulated and advocated the moral and strategic imperatives for sustaining aid and support for Poland beginning with the disheartening days following revelation of the Yalta Agreement, thence throughout the bitter, dark days of the Cold War, and through the oppressive period of martial law on the eve of the demise of communism in Central and East Europe, and

WHEREAS, The Polish American Congress sought to educate all Americans about the origin of the contributions of the Polish people to the rich diversity of American life that began with the arrival in 1608 of the first Poles in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia and blossomed with the distinguished military service of Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Casimir Pulaski during America's War of Independence, and

WHEREAS, The Polish American Congress initiated actions and prevailed on the United States Senate to ratify the Protocols of Accession to the NATO Treaty on April 4, 1998, thereby granting membership to Poland; and beginning in 1999, worked with our Department of State to prevail on the governments of Germany and Austria to compensate Poles who were victims of forced industrial and farm labor during World War II, and

WHEREAS, The Polish American Congress in the Commonwealth prevailed on the legislature to enact in Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 6, the annual state-wide observances of Polish Constitution Day, Thaddeus Kosciuszko Day, and Polish American Heritage Month in 1953, 1977, and 1996 respectively, and

WHEREAS, The Polish American Congress in Massachusetts prevailed on the legislature to pass the first-in-the-nation Visa Waiver for Poland Joint Resolution in May 2004, and

WHEREAS, The Polish American Congress representing the fifth largest European ethnic group in the United States has always stressed the principles of social responsibility, service, and civic virtue among all citizens of our great nation, the United States of America,

I, THEREFORE, Deval L. Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, congratulate the Polish American Congress and hereby proclaim April 30, 2008 as POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS DAY throughout the Commonwealth.