We already know what happened. An unimaginable tragedy. “Unimaginable” is probably the most appropriate word here. Could anyone, just two days ago, have TO imagined it?!!
We all know what happened now. For me, however, the most important question is: What happens next?
Like many of us, I spent a great deal of time yesterday staring at the television in disbelief, watching pictures from the Smolensk forest and listening to many statements, many words spoken in all sorts of studios. These words were steeped in pain; they were often wise and important words… The people who have been gone from among us since yesterday were remembered. And they will never be with us again. So all the more important is the question I have already asked once: What happens next? Will this terrible, unimaginable tragedy change something? What will change in us, in our country?
Unfortunately, my answer will be pessimistic. I am very afraid that not. That little will change. Why do I think so? For many reasons, one of them being that I have lived in this world for quite a few years, and all those years I have spent in Poland. And for the last 20 years, I have watched what is happening here fairly closely and tried to draw conclusions. And this is not only about so-called politics. It is about something much broader – reaching deep into history, our national virtues, but also our faults. And finally, there is such a thing as analogy. We learn through analogies.
Yesterday, the statements I listened to quite often returned to events from five years ago. Almost exactly five years ago, John Paul II died. Our Pope. We all remember those days. Days of reflection, prayer and sadness. Many words were spoken then as well—wise words about the need for change, the need to unite a nation still so deeply divided, and the need for reconciliation. We remember those images: a sea of glowing candles in Kraków’s Błonia Park, and similarly in every city in Poland; the solemn faces of people praying in churches… And one more characteristic moment: the supporters of Kraków’s two clubs, Wisła and Cracovia, which had been at odds for years, issued a statement: no more fighting, no more hatred; from now on, peace—we are doing this for Our Pope. It was beautiful!
And it lasted perhaps a week. After a week, they were at each other’s throats again. They were not the only ones, either. Six months after those events came the presidential election, then the parliamentary election, then the next ones… and everything returned to “normal.”
Will it be different this time?
Observing the behavior of our politicians—both those at the top and our “local” ones here below—over these last five years, I have very serious doubts.
Another set of elections is just approaching—one, then another. And I would very much like to be able to say in, let us say, six months; I would very much like to say that I was wrong today.
Besides, this does not concern politicians alone. When you read various “discussion forums” on the Internet, the first thing that strikes you is the unimaginable (that word again!) sea of aggression, hatred and intolerance—such verbal filth that people pour over one another, in truth without any significant reason. Will anything change here?
I am very afraid it will not…
Or perhaps it will? Perhaps a miracle will happen? Perhaps at last something will break within us, something will change in our consciousness? Perhaps at least we will try differently?
Among other things, through remembrance of and respect for those who died yesterday…
And perhaps then this terrible tragedy will acquire some deeper meaning? Perhaps then our national curse will finally come to an end?
Robert Rosiński