On the Occasion of the 195th Anniversary Year of West Point's Kosciuszko Monument
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Finally, our return in 2022

USMA Kosciuszko Monument at Age 195


NOTABLE AAFKWP SPRING 2023 RELATED NEWSBRIEFS 


    Being the May 6, 2023 official statement of Marek Magierowski, the Republic of Poland's Ambassador to the United States during the Annual Kosciuszko Monument commemorative ceremony, delivered in proximity to the site of the historic Kosciuszko Monument that is currently in its pre-restorative stage:

"Tadeusz Kosciuszko's biography is not only fascinating, it is also a tongue-twister. Starting from his last name, indisputably one of the most misspelled in the United States ever. Kosciuszko was born in Mereczowszczyzna, located in Iwacewicki district, in today's Belarus. And the most battle in which he led his army of insurgents against the Russian occupiers took place in Raclawice.

However there are a few words, clearly and inextricably linked with Kosciuszko's glorious deeds that are much easier to pronounce for an avarage American. Like Freedom, Independence, Honour, Solidarrity. Kosciuszko was a globalist, in the positive, not intentionally distorted, sense of the word. He was a hero of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, France and the United States. A warrior, and engineer and a thinker. A well-educated, refined, generous and compassionate aristocrat, an abolitionist who sympthised with the oppressed and understood the plight of minorities. If he lived today, Kosciuszko would most probably not win any elections.

Nevertheless he left behind a legacy we shoukd be proud of. A legacy of values which we defend also today, again facing up to  the Russian aggresor, this time in Kyiv, in Oddessa, in Bakhmut, almost 230 years after the Kosciuszko insurrection. If he lived today, perhaps he would become a hero of yet another nation, Ukraine." 




    Being the May 6, 2023 official statement of Audra Prepyte, the Republic of Lithuania's Ambassdor to the United States during the Annual Kosciuszko Monument commemorative ceremony, delivered in proximity to the site of the historic Kosciuszko Monument that is currently in its initial pre-restorative stage: 

"Tadeusz Kosciuszko, great statesman and a national hero of Lithuania, Poland, and the United States. He is the embodiment of a freedom fighter that united Europeans through a value-based transatlantic link. Kosciuszko fought for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russia, and for the U. S. in the American War of Independence. In the spirit of Kosciuszko, we are united in supporting Ukraine in its fight for its territory and all our values: freedom. humam rights, justice, liberty. When these values are attacked in one country, they are attacked in all others. Kosciuszko understood that. We recognize that as well. And we will be with Ukrainians till their full victory, till the victory of our common values and principles. In Kosciuszko's times the popular slogan, 'For our freedom and yours,' remains true today." 

This had been the standard classic image of West Point's Kosciuszko Monument at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century.



    Being the May 6, 2023 statement of Antnony J. Bajdek, the President and Founder of the American Association of the Friends of Kosciuszko at West Point, during the Annual Kosciuszko Monument commemorative ceremony, delivered in proximity to the site that is currently in its initial pre-restorative stage: 

"Despite the fact that West Point's 195 year old  beloved Kosciuszko Monument must undergo comprehensive restorative intervention, it is a tribute to Kosciuszko's storied integrity as a champion of freedom, independence, democracy and equality that we gather at this sacred place to sustain honoring his memory. Indeed, you have reflected here today his advice that in the final analysis, "let your conduct in life be such that all will praise it," which, as he originally wrote in Polish, had been: 'zachowanie twoje wreszcie niech bedzie takie, aby je kazdy pochwalal'."


Later in the fall this year, all members of the American Association of the Friends of Kosciuszko at West Point will receive an email message on the progress of restoring West Point's Kosciuszko Monument, along with preliminary information about next year's 21st Annual Tadeusz Conference (that will focus thematically on the 233rd anniversary year of Poland's Constitution of May 3, 1791), and related Kosciuszko commemorations that will occur respectively on May 3 and 4, 2024.

The United States Military Academy at West Point informed AAFKWP members who participated in the 20th Annual Tadeusz Kosciuszko Conference that had been held in the Eisenhower Room of West Point's Thayer Hotel on May 5, 2023 that restorative intervention for the Kosciuszko Monument will begin this year.

This is how it appeared in the spring of 2022, and essentially remains as such today.

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