The record is not the issue here

It was loud, colorful and - as usual - joyful. And it is all the more difficult to understand the wave of reluctant, and sometimes downright disgusting, insinuations against not so much the Orchestra (like any institution, it must have a "thick skin" and even a layer of Teflon), but those who enthusiastically play for the sick and Polish health care.

Someone will say: - For three decades you could get used to it.

Except that, however, they don't. When one sees an entry on the X platform with a thick file of hundred zloty bills and the description "And those idiots at headquarters think I only collected 500 zlotys" a person immediately scans: smooth, completely "non-can bills" is one thing, and, after all, one has been a volunteer and knows that a can cannot be opened without leaving traces, so it's an obvious fake and an insinuation aimed at undermining trust in volunteers (very often, most often even, kids) but also, simply to spit in the face of those who throw into these cans. When one reads posts and comments about the figurine of the devil that Jurek Owsiak keeps on his desk (I don't know, maybe he bows before it?), which for a Catholic is supposed to be an insurmountable obstacle to reaching into his pocket, when one reads further sensationalism about how much Owsiaks "draw" from each Finale....

How is it that for so many years the heckling has not been able to kill the spirit of the GOCC? How is it that every year the Orchestra plays better and louder? If it were just about spite, it seems that there wouldn't be enough fuel for such a long run after all. So maybe, after all, it's about... truth, simply put. About the fact that thousands of new state-of-the-art ambassadors join the Orchestra's efforts wholeheartedly every year, sharing their experience and warming up their surroundings to play together? Thousands, tens of thousands of those who have been helped by the Orchestra's equipment, saving health and sometimes lives. Twenty, twenty-five years ago, parents - some of whom I have the honor of knowing personally - of premature babies played with the Orchestra, who without the equipment purchased after the finals would have had little chance of survival. For two decades (with a piece), every year - they not only pulled out their wallets and motivated children to reach into their piggy banks - but also became leaders of the Orchestra in their communities. Today, grown-up "former preemies" are doing it, some - with their own children. - How could we not? - they ask.

If the equipment wasn't there. If it had been poor. If it had stood unused. If the annual Finals did not change the image of Polish hospitals and did not give hope to patients. If we didn't use this goodness. If... Then the hejt would be unnecessary, a house built on sand and a tree with diseased roots cannot survive, the big game would end in scandal. But the equipment is there, it helps and the Orchestra will play until the end of the world and one day longer, including for those whose eyes (and hearts) are obscured by resentment.