Speed of Life

President Biden's speech in Warsaw on Russia's invasion of Ukraine: ( Full transcript)  "Be not afraid." These were the first words that the first public address of the first Polish pope after his election in October of 1978, they were the words who would come to define Pope John Paul II. Words that would change the world. John Paul brought the message here to Warsaw in his first trip back home as pope in June of 1979. It was a message about the power, the power of faith, the power of resilience, the power of the people. In the face of a cruel and brutal system of government, it was a message that helped end the Soviet repression in the central land in Eastern Europe 30 years ago. It was a message that we'll overcome the cruelty and brutality of this unjust war. When Pope John Paul brought that message in 1979, the Soviet Union ruled with an iron fist behind an Iron Curtain. Then a year later, the solidarity movement took hold in Poland. While I know he couldn...

Jenny Holzer’s "For the Guggenheim" projected the words of Wislawa Szymborska on the museum’s outdoor facade. (2008) photo courtesy of Lili Holzer-Glier Clouds I’d have to be really quick to describe clouds— a split second’s enough … for them to start being something else. Their trademark: they don’t repeat a single shape, shade, pose, arrangement. Unburdened by memory of any kind, they float easily over the facts. What on earth could they bear witness to? They scatter whenever something happens. Compared to clouds, life rests on solid ground, practically permanent, almost eternal. Next to clouds even a stone seems like a brother, someone you can trust, while they’re just distant, flighty cousins. Let people exist if they want, and then die, one after another: clouds simply don’t care what they’re up to down there. And so their haughty fleet cruises smoothly over your whole life and mine, still incomplete. They aren’t obliged to vanish when we’re go...

To Public Service Workers in the State of Wisconsin Dear Sisters and Brothers, On behalf of the 700,000 members of the Polish Trade Union NSZZ “Solidarnosc” (Solidarity) I wish to express our solidarity and support for your struggle against the recent assault on trade unions and trade union rights unleashed by Governor Scott Walker. We are witnessing yet another attempt of transferring the costs of the economic crisis and of the failed financial policies to working people and their families. As much as some adjustments are necessary, we can not and must not agree that the austerity measures are synonymous with union-busting practices, the elimination of bargaining rights and the reduction of social benefits and wages. Dear friends, please rest assured that our thoughts are with you during your protest, as we truly do hope that your just fight for decent working and living conditions, for the workers’ rights will be successful. Your victory is our victory as well. In Solidarity, Piotr D...