Welcome to DouglasDeBono.Com, the Cyberspace Home of author Douglas De Bono

Welcome to DouglasDeBono.Com, the Cyberspace Home of
author Douglas De Bono.

A Breath of Freedom

I had the opportunity to travel around Poland this fall. Those of us who have lived in the west for our entire lives tend not to appreciate the impact that World War II and the Cold War had on Eastern Europe. For half of the last century, Poland languished under the iron grip of the Nazi and Soviet Empires.

[Douglas De Bono / DouglasDeBono.Com] Traveling by train across southern Poland, I saw numerous bombed out buildings from World War II. Even in Krakow, a city relatively untouched by the war, wrecked buildings abut restored structures. Imagine a situation in this country where buildings ruined by a natural disaster left to crumble sixty years after the event. It is something beyond the experience of any American.

One person pointed out to me one of the many apartment buildings built during the communist era. My host explained to me, “They’re ugly and no one wants to live in them.” Ugly is a charitable description for the communist inspire slabs. These are shapeless, sooty buildings that have the all the appeal of an office warehouse. They were designed to stow people in cookie cutter boxes and to drain their souls.

Fifty years of occupation has left Poland’s road and rail net maybe a sixty to eighty years behind the West. Imagine America without an interstate system, relying on the road net that existed around 1930. Where would the American economy be without the Interstate highway system? What if the only convenient way to get from place to place was by train? While it isn’t quite that bleak that does represent where Poland started from in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist.

Despite these set backs, the Polish people are embracing freedom. Private ownership of homes and cars are beginning to seep through the economy. A cohesive population and a literate work force make Poland attractive to international investment and corporate expansion.

It is amazing what freedom can do for people. Poland is well aware of their recent history. For the most part, they are fiercely anti-communist. Tacitly they hope NATO and America honor their commitments as a grumpy Russian Bear begins to flex its muscles anew. Provided they can maintain their freedom, the future is bright—and that’s something all of us need to remember.