[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 22 (Thursday, February 9, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      LECH WALESA DAY IN ILLINOIS

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. MIKE QUIGLEY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 9, 2012

  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, today I am honored to announce that the 
Illinois General Assembly passed a resolution which declares February 
9th to be Lech Walesa Day in Illinois. I have been honored to meet this 
great patriot during both of my trips to Poland, and fully support this 
tribute to a man who spent his life fighting for liberty and democracy.
  Lech Walesa is a freedom fighter. He fought for the rights of the 
worker as a trade union activist in the Gdansk shipyards. He is a man 
who fought to lift the yoke of communism and oppression off of the 
Polish people and as President of Poland led them into a new age of 
democracy. President Walesa helped fight for the rights and freedoms of 
Poles past, present, and future.
  President Walesa has always followed his moral compass, which led him 
towards freedom and democracy. Representing a district which has more 
than 110,000 people of Polish and Polish-American descent, it is my 
honor to salute a truly great world leader of the 20th century, 
President Lech Walesa.

                          ____________________