This has been the tradition since 1937, when the Polish community first marched down this avenue to honor Kazimierz Pułaski. They chose a hero who belonged to two histories at once. He fought for Poland’s freedom and later for America’s independence. He helped create the American cavalry and gave his life after being wounded at Savannah. His fate reminds us that one can love the country of one’s birth and wholeheartedly serve the one that became a new home.
Sometimes I think of the first participants in the parade. Maybe a father was straightening his son’s collar before heading out. Maybe a mother was pinning a ribbon on her daughter’s dress and saying, “Walk straight, grandma will be watching.” They marched not only for the general. They also marched so their children would hear the Polish language in the very heart of New York and know they belong to both of these worlds.
In Greenpoint, we know this kind of life well. In the morning, a conversation in Polish at the kitchen table; in the afternoon, work in a city that never slows down. In your pocket, a phone with a message from family across the ocean. In your heart, a place for those who once marched beside us and today remain only in memory. During the parade, it feels as though we are walking together again for a moment.
Today, schools, parishes, scouts, dancers, and entire families march. Someone carries a banner with great solemnity; someone’s *krakuska* cap stubbornly tilts to the left. A child waves a flag as energetically as if they were personally responsible for the prosperity of both nations. And an elderly man by the barrier suddenly falls silent. He has heard a melody he knew before coming to America.
Emotion can be loud, too. Drums, conversations, memories, and the ordinary rush of our lives join in. It is worth pausing for breath, gathering our thoughts, and truly seeing the faces of the people walking beside us.
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Of course, no capsule can replace a hand on your shoulder or a conversation after the parade. Caring for oneself takes many forms—sometimes it starts precisely by allowing ourselves a moment of peace.
On the occasion of the Pulaski Parade, we extend our warmest wishes to this year’s Grand Marshal, Dr. Iwona Kordza, all participants, and the entire New York Polish community. May you have the strength to nurture what our parents and grandparents passed down to us, and the joy of passing it on to your children. I wish this also to Polish people everywhere in the world—those who live in the country and those who have looked at it from afar for years.
Poland does not end where its borders end. It travels with us across the ocean in the words our mother taught us. It returns in the scent of Sunday dinner, in a carol sung even when the voice trembles a little, and in the longing for someone we can no longer call. We carry it in our hearts even when our children speak with an American accent, but know why at the sight of the white-and-red flag we stand in silence for a moment. So let everyone on Fifth Avenue feel that they are walking among their own. And if a tear comes to someone’s eye, let them not hide it. Today, even New York can see how strongly a Polish heart beats.
