Growing up, “Polack” jokes were tolerated in our house, perhaps a positive sign because for us it meant other more typical derogatory jokes of the day, and place, were off-limits. But I imagine for all my friends, and brethren, of Polish descent, there was nothing positive about negative stereotypes being perpetuated – harmless as they may have seemed to a kid.

I don’t know why we picked on the Poles, maybe because we didn’t know any and so what’s the harm cracking a few? Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, does it make a sound if no one’s there to hear it fall? Whether anyone heard it or not, a fallen tree still had an impact when it hit the earth, and “Polack” jokes had an impact too.

For me, the impact was that I had a subconscious perspective that Polish folks were not as bright as the rest of us, and a little bit, no, a lot stubborn. And that seed of subconscious condescension – often the result of “harmless” jokes – bloomed later in life when relatively new to my federal career I was left to negotiate with a high level official from Poland. I found out quickly that the not so bright one in the room was not Polish – and I was schooled in the art of negotiation.

Subsequent to that in my work around the international grain trade, I found that a number of very key players in multinational grain corporations were Polish, and they were there for a reason; they were very shrewd and highly intelligent. And in my travels in and around Eastern Europe, I consistently ran into Poles who were opposite of what the jokes I’d heard had led me to believe.

Indeed, what I observed was that Polish folks were perhaps the most entrepreneurial hard working people in all of Europe. They were very ingenious, trying hard to find a new and better way to do something. In many ways, they embody the American spirit more than most people I’ve run into. Real go-getters trying to make a better life despite all the obstacles they’ve been given. They are the quintessential half-full glass folks, keeping on the sunny side. Looking back now, we should not have been surprised that the overthrow of the evil empire, a.k.a. the Soviet Union, had a key root in little ol’ Poland who stood up to the USSR and said enough is enough, we want freedom. We poured billions into taking the Soviet Union down – which undoubtedly helped – but the spark that really got the ball rolling began in a shipyard in a port city in Poland.

Despite my enlightenment, when I heard and read about the tragic plane crash that recently killed the Polish President and other top leaders, and discovered that the pilot was repeatedly told to land elsewhere due to bad weather but instead he chose not to, all I could do was revert back to my grade school frame of reference and think “that dumb Polack”. I mean how hard is it? Someone on the other end tells you your life is in danger, if you do this, you will die. And you, on your end, in the captains chair, say, no, not me. I can land the plane safely. And then boom, you face eternity.

The devil has been using this line of reasoning since the Garden – “no, you won’t surely die”. Go ahead, do what you want to. And this line has been pretty effective. But he’s also learned to combine with that the temptation to look down at others, so we see clearly the mistakes of others but get smug about our own situation and sin in our lives. It’s easier to say “that dumb Polack”, than to say Lord, let me move over and let you sit in my captain’s chair. Easier being the Pharisee, “Lord I’m thankful I’m not like the sinner.”

While we may never know, the latest news on the crash is that there is strong reason to believe that what really happened is that the Polish President pressured the pilot to land. That had happened before with this President. With such a big event to attend, it’s easy to believe it happened this time again, with tragic consequences. So perhaps not only did the pilot ignore the one who could see him safely through, he instead listened to the one who couldn’t. He in essence, gave up the captain’s chair to someone guaranteed not to get him home.

Who is the captain of our ship? Who do we listen to when danger is near? Who can guide us safely through? Do we even worry about such or are we too busy looking down our nose at others to see our own sorry situation? How we answer this is the real determination of who is dumb.