The Gipper Remembered
And Remembered Well
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Featured Stories | Foreign Affairs — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The people of Poland have a wonderful sense of history (read on):
Opponents of Poland's former communist regime reportedly want to pay a posthumous homage to US President Ronald Reagan by erecting his statue in the place of a Soviet-era monument.
In an open letter to the mayor of the southwestern city of Katowice, the former anti-regime activists said that the staunchly anti-communist Reagan had been a "symbol of liberty," the Polish news agency PAP reported.
As a result, they said, he deserved to become the centrepiece of the city's Freedom Square, replacing a monument to the Soviet troops who drove out the occupying Nazis in 1945.
They also said that they wanted the site to be rebaptised "Ronald Reagan Freedom Square."
City hall spokesman Waldemar Bojarun said that Katowice's councillors would consider the issue.
Bojarun said that he had "enormous respect" for Reagan.
However, he said, the proposal could cost an estimated 500,000 zlotys (128,000 euros, 168,000 dollars) and the city had "other pressing needs."
There are already separate plans to erect a statue in memory of Reagan in the centre of the Polish capital, Warsaw, which would be paid-for from private funds.
Reagan would, of course, approve of Katowice seeing to its immediate needs before putting up a statue in his honor. Even if the statue never goes up, the fact that Reagan is being so honored by the thought behind the creation of such a monument should warm the heart. Although certain quarters in the United States may have forgotten, the Polish people--and many others in Eastern Europe--remember what Ronald Reagan did for them. Some Americans may be ungrateful for Reagan's accomplishments but those who are enjoying the taste of freedom after decades in captivity will long venerate the 40th President's legacy.
They feel they owe their liberty to Ronald Reagan, after all. And it's not like they don't have a point.
That people from impoverished Poland consider building a monument to the president liberals claim wasn't "cosmopolitan" and who cared only for "the rich."