Whereas the United States and the Republic of Poland are
close allies, with a shared bond of history, friendship, and international
cooperation;
Whereas Polish immigrants were among the first Jamestown
settlers and Casimir Pulaski immigrated to the United States to fight in the
Revolutionary War;
Whereas more than 9,000,000 Americans of Polish descent
now reside in the United States, bringing vitality to major metropolitan areas
such as Chicago, Detroit, and New York City;
Whereas Polish-Americans have been leaders in all walks of
life in the United States;
Whereas the people of the United States stood in support
of the Solidarity movement as it fought against the oppression of the Communist
government of Poland through peaceful means, eventually leading to Solidarity
members being elected to office in open democratic elections held on June 4,
1989, events that helped spark the movement to democracy throughout Eastern
Europe;
Whereas Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) in 1999, joined the European Union in 2004, and has
contributed to United States and NATO operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan;
Whereas Poland has enjoyed a thriving and prosperous free
market democracy since the end of the Cold War;
Whereas the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and 95
other people, including Maria Kaczynski, First Lady of Poland, Aleksander
Szczyglo, National Security Chief Slawomir Skrzypek, Governor of the National
Bank of Poland, Jerzy Szmajdinski, Deputy Speaker of the Lower House, and
Franciszek Gagor, Chief of the General Staff, were tragically killed in a plane
crash in western Russia on April 10, 2010;
Whereas President Kaczynski and his colleagues were
traveling to Katyn, Russia, for a memorial service to mark the 70th anniversary
of the Soviet secret police killing of more than 20,000 Polish officers,
prisoners, and intellectuals who were captured after the Soviet Union invaded
Poland in 1939;
Whereas Anna Walentynowicz, the former dock worker whose
firing in 1980 sparked the Solidarity strike that ultimately overthrew the
Communist government of Poland, was also killed in the crash;
Whereas Ryszard Kaczorowski, who served as Poland’s final
president in exile before the country’s return to democracy, also perished in
the crash;
Whereas Chicago suffered the loss of a respected artist
when Wojciech Seweryn, whose father was killed in Katyn, died in the crash as
well;
Whereas Mr. Seweryn recently completed a memorial to the
victims of Katyn at St. Adalbert Cemetery in Niles, Illinois, which President
Kaczynski planned to visit in May;
Whereas President Barack Obama said, the loss is
devastating to Poland, to the United States, and to the world. President
Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity
movement, and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated
to advancing freedom and human dignity.
;
Whereas Former Solidarity leader and ex-president Lech
Walesa said, Today, we lost part of our intellectual elite in a plane
crash. It will take a long time until the wounds of our democracy are
healed.
; and
Whereas thousands of Poles gathered in the center of
Warsaw and elsewhere around the world on Saturday to mourn those killed in the
crash and affirm their continued solidarity with the people of Poland: Now,
therefore, be it
That the House of
Representatives—
(1)expresses its deepest sympathies to the
people of the Republic of Poland and the families of those who perished for
their profound loss;
(2)expresses strong and continued solidarity
with the people of Poland and Polish-American communities in the United States;
and
(3)expresses
unwavering support for the Government of Poland as it works to address the loss
of many key public officials.