PULASKI DAY SPEECH BY JUSTICE AURELIA PUCINSKI

On 2025-03-11, Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL-5) delivered a floor speech titled "PULASKI DAY SPEECH BY JUSTICE AURELIA PUCINSKI" in the House. The speech addressed immigration and also covered taxes, foreign policy.

PULASKI DAY SPEECH BY JUSTICE AURELIA PUCINSKI

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 45 (Tuesday, March 11, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 11, 2025)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E207] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PULASKI DAY SPEECH BY JUSTICE AURELIA PUCINSKI ______ HON. MIKE QUIGLEY of illinois in the house of representatives Tuesday, March 11, 2025 Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the following remarks made by Justice Aurelia Pucinski on Pulaski Day, March 3, 2025, at the Polish Museum of America in Chicago. We celebrate Casimir Pulaski as twice a hero. First, he sacrificed everything: his home, his family, his freedom, fighting the evil Czar of Russia to protect his beloved Poland. Then he came here, to help the American Colonists fight the tyranny of King George. He died for our freedom and liberty. It was worth his life. It was everything. liberty: the core of our polish identity We've had other Polish heroes in America. The Polonians who came to the shores of Jamestown with Captain John Smith in 1609, not knowing what in the world they faced, but knowing it was better than the life they left behind. Those brave glassmakers led the first labor strike in the new colony for the right to vote and own land: Liberty. They fought for it and won. Thaddeus Kosciuszko joined our Revolution for the principles of freedom from tyranny and the goal of independence: both values etched into the heart of every Pole. So fiercely did he believe in liberty that he provided in his will for the freedom of slaves. There are more modem heroes too: Thaddeus Senzimer, the inventor of modern steel techniques. Henry Magnuski, who developed the WWII walkie talkies that became out modern cellphones. Paul Baran, an internet pioneer. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple. Roman Pucinski, who had to fight tooth and nail to get Black Boxes into all commercial airplanes. Poles started coming to Chicago in 1830. By 1920 there were 400,000 in Chicago. Today there are 900,000 people of Polish heritage in Cook County. The first and largest immigration was between 1850-1920. Then huge numbers of immigrants were displaced by World War II. Many left in the 1980's after martial law was declared in Poland and the struggle to bring democracy to Poland took new strength from ``Solidarity.'' John Napieralski, is believed to be the first Pole in Chicago, arriving around 1830. He dreamed of a vibrant Polonia in our City. He might have predicted the hard-working men and women of Polonia building neighborhoods anchored by beautiful churches: St. Stanislaus Kostka, Holy Trinity, St. Adalbert, St. Mary of the Angels, St. John Cantius and so many more. We have benefitted from major Polish language newspapers, a vibrant Polish theater, radio and now TV community. And our truly remarkable Polish organizations: the Polish Museum, the Polish Roman Catholic Union the Polish National Alliance, the Polish American Congress the Highlanders, the Alliance of Polish Clubs, the Legion of Young Polish Women, our hundreds of Polish schools and more. Generations of Poles have come to Chicago. A very few of us actually remember the horrors of the Nazi invasion of Poland, the death and destruction of Nazi occupation, the cruelty of war, the horror of Russian genocide at Katyn, the death of freedom under the new Russian czars of communism. But if we are not old enough to actually remember it, we certainly have heard the stories from family, or read the history. Whether your family came here in 1830 or later we are here because someone in our family decided to leave behind the life of uncertainty and oppression for a life of opportunity and freedom. To seek free speech, economic opportunity, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of press and most important, the freedom of ideas. Things that are unreachable in nations under Russian influence. Would we trade our freedoms here for the slow death of the new communism? Poland is democratic and free now. Some of us plan to return, and why not? It is a beautiful country. How much do we want to keep it free? What about the nations in the former Soviet bloc? what would pulaski do? Those who left that life behind are heroes too. They forged for us the opportunities we enjoy here. They gave us freedom. They gave us liberty. They gave us everything. We honor those who fought to get here. We recognize that some of us did it ourselves. Some of us rest on the shoulders of those who made the choice to leave that empty life behind. But no matter what the history of your family, it requires that we always remember what we left behind and why. ____________________