Why Choose Poland?

Why Poland?

Poland holds tremendous fascination for me, and I can identify three phases in that attraction:

First Impressions

Growing up on Milwaukee’s south side in the 1950s and ‘60s, our neighborhood was almost exclusively German and Polish in terms of family names and cultural influence, with Polish the dominant presence.  My friends and classmates had names such as Wisniewski, Roszak, Michalski, Cerwinski, Braniak, Pacholczyk, Zawicki, Karshna, Wroblewski and so forth.  Their grandparents often spoke only Polish, and their parents could function in Polish and English.  Signs in stores were sometimes written in Polish.  The neighborhood Catholic churches held festivals that featured Polish foods such as kielbasa and pierogies.  It seemed very exotic and alluring.  Of course, even as a youth, I had a vague notion of the Cold War and the isolation that lay beyond the Iron Curtain.  The idea of visiting this exotic and impenetrable country was preposterous.

Incidentally, the Polish presence and influence in Milwaukee are still strong.  A couple weeks ago, I enjoyed a meal at the Polish-American Center there.  And there is an effort to restore the monument in Milwaukee to one of Poland’s favorite sons and American Revolution hero, General Tadeusz Kościuszko.  Additionally, Milwaukee boasts what is billed as the largest annual Polish Festival in the U.S.

Cold Warrior

Entering the U.S. Air Force in 1973, I first served as a navigator on C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, then transitioned into public affairs.  From 1980-84, I was stationed in Frankfurt, just 50 miles from the Fulda Gap and the Iron Curtain that split the two Germanys.  Standing at the Wall, staring at the East German guard towers, I had the strong feeling of frustration as well as hopelessness at the apparent permanence of the dividing line separating Western from Central and Eastern Europe.  Subsequent assignments to England and the Pentagon did little to assuage that frustration, though the Solidarity movement in Poland seemed to be establishing a foothold through the mid-1980s.  Then in 1990, I was assigned to NATO’s military headquarters in Belgium to serve as head of media relations and traveling press aide to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (General John Galvin for the first two years, then General John Shalikashvili for my final year).  The velocity of change during those three years was breathtaking: the collapse of the Soviet Union, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the reunification of Germany, etc.  The most tangible manifestation of those changes for me involved the rapid development of exchanges and relationship building with counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe.  Journalists and public relations practitioners started visiting our headquarters for briefings and discussions.   I found myself traveling with the SACEUR and other top officials to Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, Zagreb and other places I could not have conceived of visiting.  In future blogs I will plan to describe some of those extraordinary experiences.

Regrettably, I was not able to travel to Poland during my assignment with NATO.   Nevertheless, the opportunities that were emerging during that remarkable period rekindled my nascent fascination with Poland, and my travels to other parts of Central and Eastern Europe only intensified the appeal the region held for me.  How amazing it would have been to have traveled to Warsaw with General Shalikashvili, who had been born in Warsaw shortly before World War II.

Invited Scholar

Following my Air Force career in 1995, I entered Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, earning a doctorate and launching my academic career with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1998.  Here, we have built a strong program focus on global public relations.  Based on that reputation, I received an invitation in 2005 to speak at an International Public Relations conference in Poznan, Poland.  I confess I had to look it up on the map.  The timing was perfect; I would just be finishing the 4-week course on international public relations I was teaching in London.  My wife joined me at the end of the course in London, and we made the simple flight to Poland – a simple flight I could not have imagined making during those early years in Milwaukee or as a "Cold Warrior" in Europe during the 1980s.  Robin and I were instantly smitten with Poland.  We loved the architecture, the countryside, the sights, the people, and we especially loved the spirit.  My host for the conference, Dr. Ryszard Ławniczak with the Poznan University of Economics, was supremely gracious.  The graduate students, faculty and public relations practitioners I was privileged to meet were consummate professionals.  I was bowled over by the quality of the program and of the conference.

At the end of our visit, Robin and I resolved to cultivate the new relationships we had made and to find an appropriate way to return to Poland to continue and build upon those relationships.  The Fulbright program now opens that door.

Some of the scholars and practitioners attending the International PR conference in Poznan, Poland, in 2005.  Freitag is front row, far right.  Front row, 3^rd from left, is Dr. Ryszard Ławniczak, then Dr. Larissa Grunig and Dr. James Grunig.