Choice Words
How many times would you need to be arrested before you started using harsh language?
If you’ve had a chance to watch the video I mentioned yesterday, of Pastor Art Pawlowski defying a full half-dozen Calgary Public Health officials and police officers, you heard some strong language. Nazis. Gestapo. Communists.
During his speech three days ago at the Great Canadian Awakening conference he talked about those words. “I know that I rub Canadian ears in the wrong way,” he said. He knows that some people find such language offensive.
But to a Polish immigrant such as himself, these are not mere words. They aren’t gratuitous flourishes. They’re anything but cheap insults. The people of Poland experienced the Nazis and the Gestapo firsthand. After that nightmare ended, a new one began. Soviet Communists victimized Poland for over four decades.
“I remember people being arrested, beaten, tortured,” says Pastor Art of his childhood. “Because they dared to listen to European radio. If you were caught with a Solidarity pamphlet, there was five years of imprisonment.”
What comes next is important:
when I call them Gestapo, when I call them Nazis, when I call them Communist I'm not…just saying simple words just to insult them. I'm trying to awaken you - and them as well.
If you, dear reader, had been arrested 60 times like Pastor Art - that’s not a typo - do you think you might be using words like Gestapo by now? If most of those arrests had been carried out by anti-terrorist SWAT teams rather than police officers knocking politely on your door, might you be calling some people Nazis?
Pastor Art Pawlowski is a man of integrity and conviction. He is certainly a brave man IMO. Many would wither given the assault on him both mentally and physically.
I’m sorry for missing the conference - Did Arturo describe fully how he was treated by the jail guards (and by the inmates) while incarcerated without bail? Anyone with any brains in their head would know that they were trying to break him or even kill him. Does one of the most patriotic Canadian Freedom Fighters deserve this - what has Canada called me to??