Speech #920174598

He calls his campaign "Project Pole." and for a start. he wants to stamp out those Polish Jokes that have been going around the country for the last five years. (Current example: Did you hear about the Polish kamikaze pilot? He flew 13 successful missions.) Privately. Piszek thinks the Jokes were probably the best thing ever to happen to PolishAmericans. "They got us off our rear ends." he says. "We became motivated by adversity." Since Piszek was all of 52 years old before he learned that the astronomer Copernicus was Polish. he feels he typifies the poor grasp of Polish history that the Polish peasant had who emigrated here around the turn of the century. All the immigrant brought with him. Piszek says. were his hopes and aspirations and the polka. a vigorous but monotonous musical form that he believes contributed to the Poles low esteem in this country. "If I thought the polka was the only thing that Poland had contributed in 1.000 years." he asserts. "I. too. would cry Shame! But lets not forget Chopin.