NEWS from THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS
DOWNSTATE NEW YORK DIVISION
177 Kent St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 – (718) 349-9689
Jamaica, N.Y. (2/10) .. Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY) (center), added his name to the list of co-sponsors of the latest proposed legislation expanding the Visa Waiver Program and finally allowing Polish citizens to be included. Shown thanking him for his support are: Chet Szarejko (left), chairman of the Polish American Congress Political Activities Committee and Frank Milewski, president of the PAC’s Downstate New York Division.
Getting Poland into America’s Visa Waiver Program has been the Polish American Congress’ goal for several years. The year 2011 ended in disappointment when such legislation failed to be passed.
But 2012 begins with the re-introduction of similar proposed legislation with a new label: Visa Waiver Program Enhanced Security and Reform Act. It is identified as H.R. 3855 in the House of Representatives and S.2046 in the U.S. Senate.
Congressman Meeks is Senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a longtime friend of Mr. Szarejko. In addition to discussing the Visa Waiver bill at Rep. Meeks’ Jamaica (Queens) office, Szarejko sought the Congressman’s support for the idea of having New York State schools expand their curricula to teach more adequately the important contributions to America of Poland’s Thaddeus Kosciuszko.
The Polish military engineer served under Gen. George Washington in America’s War of Independence and helped make the Battle of Saratoga in upstate New York the “turning point of the American Revolution” by his engineering skills. Gen. Kosciuszko also built the fortifications around West Point where a monument honoring him stands today.
When Gen. Kosciuszko wrote his last will and testament in the United States, he left his estate for the purpose of liberating African Americans forced into slavery, thereby earning for himself the title, “America’s First Emancipator.”