Marek Galinski a Polish Mountain Bike Champion Died in a Car Accident this Monday Past

Marek Galinski Killed in Poland
http://www.cyclingnews.com/


it is interesting...
if someone is of Chinese descent... it does not matter how many generations their family has been out of China... they are viewed as being Chinese...
the same would go for African Americans...
yet if I tell someone I am Polish... there is hesitation

is it because I am not visibly Polish? 

I am 100% Polish... both sets of parents and their parents and then my great grandparents who were the immigrants from Polish
what gives me a kinship to Poland... 
as a child in the 70's society still thought it was okay to tell Ethnic Jokes

the Polish jokes always implied that Poles are\were stupid
the jokes were told to me and directed to me
rather than remark that I am generations from being Polish and turn my back on my Polish roots
I took pride in my Polish heritage and had along mental list of people of Polish heritage who were not stupid... that list beginning with my siblings and parents... none of which are stupid

 yes... my grade school experience in the 1970's often seemed like it was the 1950's
and that behavior was not appropriate in either times
yet it still remained
we learned that certain cultures did not care for other cultures
and it was not uncommon for children to adopt these prejudices
taking the side of their heritage and making the joking attacks on children of the opposing culture


a few years ago we took a family trip to Poland
the event was sponsored by my father who has been teaching a week long medical school in Krakow Poland
it was an amazing trip

Krakow is a beautiful European city with all sorts of history and culture

Chase the links for more images
my tumblr page has lots of images as does the Gwadzilla Facebook Page
http://gwadzilla.tumblr.com/post/4729236738/auschwitz-and-birkenau-part-ii



 Gwadzilla mention of Poland
http://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/search?q=poland
then mention of Krakow

http://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/search?q=krakow