My, naród" (We, the people) - The other side of Polish politics

Ah, presidential primary season. Believe it or not, a surprising number of folks on this side of the Atlantic are aware of the intricacies of the current U.S. political situation. We've had friends ask candidly about our take on it and even go so far as to express concern since the U.S. has such an effect on the matters of the rest of the world. But it's with some relief that I can say we are not bombarded by the rat race every minute over here. Need a break? Let's talk Polish political shop! It may make you feel better...

We have not experienced much change day-to-day under PiS, the current governing party in Poland; however, we have been horrified to follow their actions since taking power (see this earlier post). Despite all of this I am optimistic, which one of my Russian teachers in St. Petersburg would have considered "very American" of me. It gives me hope to see Poles in Warsaw reacting in large numbers, especially an event we think may have been overlooked by Western media. It happened the weekend before last:

Saturday, February 27 - My, naród" (We, the people) protest
We were heading down to a museum in the afternoon until our tram stopped prematurely and forced everyone off. Aleje Jerozolimskie - the busiest thoroughfare in the city - was eerily empty of cars and buses and blocked off by police, and a helicopter circled overhead.

Walking east, we heard drums and the dull roar of a crowd. We squinted and saw a tidal wave of people in the distance crossing Most Poniatowskie, filling the wide street. The stream of marchers seemed endless as it passed us. We watched for about twenty minutes before joining, and still the bridge was full of people, tens of thousands of them. There were older couples, young couples with small children, students, parents, grandparents. Neighbors greeted each other. It felt universal. Everywhere you looked there were EU flags and Polish ones. The signs and conversations were
emotional, pointing to Poland's history and cherished national heroes, defending what their tragic history was for, and calling for a return to legitimate democracy. It was powerful. It ended in a historically monumental spot: Pilsudski Square, and the huge space could not have squeezed in any more people than it had. Police set the number at 15,000, but we feel it was much higher. The sponsoring organization K.O.D (Komitet Obrony Demokracji / Committee for Defense of Democracy) claimed 80,000.

I'm not sure what can be done but I hope some good comes out of the efforts of KOD and all of these Poles (perhaps a call for early elections like a decade ago). This isn't over yet, and we will be following it closely as we continue our lives here in Warsaw. We're certainly just observers here but have a lot of hope for this country - and our own. If Trump has his way, we can't help but wonder if Americans of the future will be like the Poles of today, scratching their heads wondering how the unthinkable happened and got them into the mess they're in.