Why Bother About One's Heritage?....Feb. 17, 2003
By Robert Strybel.....Polish-American Journal Warsaw Correspondent
www.polamjournal.com

February, 2003-Vol. 92, No.2

     Although the pronounced pro-WASP nativism prevalent during the first half of the 20^th century has largely subsided, you can still run into people who say: "This is America! So what if my great-grandfather came from Ruritania, Lower Slobovia or wherever-what does that have to do with me in this day and age? We're in America, so we should live and do things the American way."

     But the question arises: What is the American way? Is it something fixed at a certain point in time and, if so, when: in 1880, 1920, 1955, 1987, 2000, 2013…?

     Is it the America of Henry Ford's melting pot, in which immigrants were told to abandon their birth right and melt beyond recognition into one, uniform, homogenized stew?

     Some sociologists saw the melting pot as a nice-sounding smoke-screen for what in reality was Anglo-conformity: the pressure to adjust and change into an image and likeness as close to the WASP model as possible. In the later half of the 20^th century, melting-pot notions largely gave way to cultural pluralism, sometimes referred to as the "salad-bowl alternative".

      Should we simply take from America and give nothing in return?

      Like a salad, whose individual ingredients remain recognizable, as bits of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, etc., a pluralistic society is one that does not force its individual members to give up their cultural identities. Within the overall framework of national consensus on key issues, they are free to cultivate their heritage within their own community and share it with the country as a whole. Through its diversity, such a society is richer, deeper and more interesting than those in which everyone tries to be the same. The pluralist version of the motto of the United States E pluribus unum (one nation out of many individual nationalities) would probably read: In pluribus unum (one nation within a multitude of different peoples).

      To the question: "Why bother about your Polish heritage?" - there can be many answers. Personally I think our ancestral heritage is like a mother. A mother need not hold a Ph.D from an Ivy league university. She need not be as glamorous as a movie star or as athletic as a Davis Cup champion. She doesn't even have to cook as well as Martha Stewart, but we love her (or should) all the same. Because she is our mother who gave us life. And, what's most important, she is the only one we will ever have! Should we be ashamed of her if she is a bit rough around the edges or maybe speaks with an accent or doesn't know Schopenhauer from Eisenhower?

      This is not to suggest, however, that we should be exactly like our mother and imitate her in everything she does or says. The same holds true for our heritage. We should get to know it well in order to be able to wisely choose the positive values it contains and reject or try to improve its less favorable aspects. That is especially the case in America, a colorfully diverse market of cultural options from every corner of the globe. In fact, owing to the negative stereotypes our community has been subjected, it is especially important to expose America to the best our heritage has to offer.

      The alternative to cultivating one's heritage is rootlessness. The so called "just plain Americans," whom I sometimes refer to as Anglo-mainstreamers, are far more vulnerable to the rip-off artists of commerpop (commercialist mass culture) than people with an understanding of and appreciation for their ancestral legacy. More often than not, religion is closely intertwined with cultural heritage. Analysts of the latest US census found that Italian Americans who practiced their religion were 20% more likely to cultivate their cultural heritage.

      That undoubtedly holds true for Pol-Ams and other groups. And the converse is also true. Irreligious and de-ethnicized Americans are more likely to succumb to commerpop pressures. In the absence of genuine values to fall back upon, they often fill the vacuum with the latest gadgets and cutting-edge trends, which are here today and gone tomorrow. To a large extent, such people are defining Americanism largely in terms of marketable creature comforts, passing fads and "new and improved" products which somehow always fall short of the advertising claims. The obvious answer is cultural pluralism which broadens a person's intellectual horizons and emotional perception. That can help build up one's resistance to the unkept promises and fly-by-night lifestyles that the commercial "powers that be" are trying to impose.

      If cultural pluralism is changing America, should we as Polish Americans simply sit back and passively watch those changes take place? Or, should we make our own enriching contributions? Is that not our patriotic pro-American duty? We all know what great opportunities America has given Polish immigrants and their descendants all over the globe. Should we simply take from America and give nothing in return? And, if we are indeed to reciprocate, how should we show our gratitude? What should we do to enrich these United States? What specific Polish things, traits, styles and values can we share with the rest of the country? I'm sure everyone reading these words has their own ideas about what we as Polish Americans can and should contribute to the country as a whole. If we just sit back and do nothing to make a positive Polish cultural imprint on America, one thing is certain: the WASP, Irish, Jews, Hispanics, Afro-Americans and Orientals will not do it for us.

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