Something just happened in my home country - Poland. Mayor of the city Gdańsk was stabbed to death during biggest charity event in the nation. He was a great man, an ally to LGBTQ, to refugees, to women’s rights, true progressive in far-right country. He died because of hate, nurtured by our government with meticulous care.
This is the one day a truly divided nation somehow comes together for a greater purpose. When I say it’s the biggest charity event I mean - there is not a single person in Poland who haven’t heard of it. 1 in every 10 people volunteered at some point, myself included. EVERY hospital in the country received medical resources from this charity. It’s been around for 27 years, in total gathering over 1 billion PLN. It’s CEO is an icon, a humanitarian and he gets no money from it, nothing. Just a joy of helping millions of people.
And during this one magical day some… irrelevant trash decided to hurt and eventually kill another person. On live television. During a charity for children.
Before this waste of space was captured he grabbed a microphone and announced some bullshit that I won’t even repeat. But one thing was clear: his choice of victim was politically motivated.
One would think, that tragedy is exactly what would unite people. At least for one day. Instead members of our government decided once again to attack the CEO and founder of the charity - Jurek Owsiak.
it’s nothing new for him. They’ve been attacking, insulting and derogating him for years. But evidently accusing him of being guilty of death of his colleague, as he alone would stab him was too hard pill to swallow. He broke, decided to step down. A truly good man. Doing whatever he can to help people… And they broke him.
The mayor who got murdered was named Paweł Adamowicz. Whole country is in mourning. There are silent demonstrations all over to honour his memory, but also against hate spreading through Poland like a cancer.
We can barely process this happened. Not only we lost a great politician and great person, we lost a great voice calling for justice and equality, for decency.
And we in some ways lost Jurek. His indomitable drive for better was finally crushed by hate.
I have nothing good to say. The world is truly dark tonight.
I might just add. Please remember - hate kills. And kills good people. And it killed Paweł Adamowicz. Remember him. He was a good one.
