No Polish Jokes Mr. President

I have no idea why, but when I was a kid, Polish jokes were popular.

There’s never a good reason to pick on one ethnic group or another, but, for some reason, a few less sensitive folks seemed to think it was O.K. to spin such tales.

I don’t recall ever telling any Polish jokes specifically, but I do remember someone in the family trying to tell one in front of my father.

Since we were of Lebanese descent we were the butt of a few jokes too.

Here’s what dad taught.

Ethnic jokes are never O.K., unless we happen to tell one about our own kind, then, the folks listening are fine with it.

The President made an entire nation upset, not to mention millions of cousins here in the States, by describing a Nazi Concentration Camp as a “Polish Death Camp.”

General knowledge of history seems to be lacking in this Administration’s speech writing bullpen.

Even with that said, the President must own up to anything he says.  Describing it as a “misstatement” is unacceptable to the Polish people and since Poland is one of our staunchest allies, we owe them better.

I don’t expect to hear a real apology from the President, as his Press Secretary Jay Carney has already addressed it.  As far as the Poles are concerned, Carney’s apology was a joke.

Here’s the thing.

Our Commander-in-Chief might be thinking that saying one is sorry for their own mistake is a weakness.

How wrong he is.

Apologies, like ethnic jokes about ones own nationality, are never out-of-place and almost always well received, no matter how many times they’re made.

I once had to give an opening prayer at the Lenox House Restaurant for a Republican fund-raising event.

The President of the club was my Umoo Nabih, who was born in Lebanon.

He also sent out invitations by mail.

Inside the envelope we learned that a great guest speaker would be there, named Ollie North. (Colonel Oliver North)

I commented that I was glad to see such a large group of Lebanese in the audience, which for some reason made everyone roar.

I also told the group that Umoo Nabih had two sets of invitations made out, one for the Lebanese and one for everyone else.

The one for the Lebanese promoted a guest speaker, except in this invitation the name Ollie was spelled A-L-I.

The walls almost fell over at the Lenox House that night.

So, you see Mr. President, never joke about anyone but your own kind, unless you want a bowl of kapusta dumped on your head.

That wasn’t a joke either, they just might do it.