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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3 Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Polish
4 President Lech Kaczynski, who was tragically killed, along with
5 his wife, Maria, in an airplane crash, on April 10, 2010; and
 
6     WHEREAS, President Kaczynski was traveling with a Polish
7 delegation to Russia for the 70th anniversary of the Russian
8 massacre of Polish prisoners of war in the village of Katyn;
9 the event was to be a milestone in the easing of relations
10 between Russia and Poland; and
 
11     WHEREAS, President Kaczynski was a one-time anti-communist
12 activist who teamed up with his twin brother to take his
13 country in a nationalist, conservative direction; he pursued a
14 strongly pro-U.S. line in foreign relations, in accordance with
15 a cross-party consensus that has grown in Poland since the fall
16 of communism; and
 
17     WHEREAS, He first rose to fame as a child movie star,
18 alongside his identical twin, in a hit movie in 1962, "Two Who
19 Stole the Moon," about two troublemakers who try to get rich by
20 stealing the moon and selling it; in the 1970s and 1980s, the
21 Kaczynski brothers were activists in the anti-communist
22 opposition and went on to serve as advisers to Solidarity

 

 

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1 founder Lech Walesa; he supported Walesa's presidential bid in
2 1990 and became the chief presidential adviser on security
3 issues; and
 
4     WHEREAS, He served as Poland's justice minister in
5 2000-2001, and his tough stance against crime laid the
6 foundations for the popularity that would fuel his later rise
7 to the presidency; he became mayor of Warsaw in 2001, and won
8 respect for a no-nonsense style and plain-speaking reputation;
9 in seeking the presidency in 2005, he made clean government a
10 key pledge; and
 
11     WHEREAS, President Kaczynski was a firm friend of Poland's
12 Jewish community, which has enjoyed a revival in recent years
13 after it was nearly wiped out in the Holocaust and later
14 suffered from communist-era repression; in 2008, he became the
15 first head of state to attend a religious service at a
16 synagogue in Poland; as mayor, he promoted a planned museum on
17 Jewish history by donating city land to the project; and
 
18     WHEREAS, President Kaczynski is survived by his daughter,
19 Marta; his two granddaughters, Ewa and Martyna; his twin
20 brother, Jaroslaw; and his mother, Jadwiga; therefore, be it
 
21     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
22 NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we

 

 

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1 mourn, along with his family, friends, the people of Poland,
2 and people around the world, the passing of President Lech
3 Kaczynski; and be it further
 
4     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
5 presented to the family of President Lech Kaczynski as a symbol
6 of our sincere sympathy.