President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
July 25, 2014
Dear Mr. President
The Polish American Congress and its representatives throughout the country are disturbed and most concerned about the atrocities that have been occurring in Ukraine over the last several months and most recently, the tragedy concerning the shooting down of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 over eastern Ukraine that killed all of its 298 innocent people.
This last incident by pro-Russian separatists supported nu the Kremlin has also ignited many in the Polish American community to connect it with the airplane crash in Smolensk killing President Kaczynski of Poland and all his Polish government fellow passengers on board the tragic flight in April 2010.
As a Polish American Community, we firmly support imposing consequential sanctions on Russia and other actions should they become necessary. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is without a doubt Europe’s most important security challenge since the Cold War and will remain so until it is resolved.
Mr. President, the Polish American Congress urges and supports you in speaking and convincing other world leaders on the dangers that the Russian government has precipitated in Ukraine. Mr. Putin, as President of the Russian Federation, should be reminded of his responsibility to use his influence and power to curb the unrest and fighting in his part of the world rather than provoking it.
We ask you to use lead the way by trying to influence and promote support of other European countries to act in unison with the United States and to speak with one voice, otherwise we and the rest of the world as well, will never be safe. It’s unfortunate that European countries such as France, England, Italy and Germany fail to recognize the danger in security terms rather than in economic terms principally. We need to provide support for the new Ukrainian government to maintain its national security and desire to live in peace.
As the Polish American Congress, our concerns are for the safety and well-being of the citizens of Poland based on the fact of its bordering Ukraine and proximity to Russia.
We need to reinforce diplomacy by having conflicted countries respect international laws and rights of neighboring nations which is the basis of security in a civilized world.
The Polish American community looks to your leadership.
Respectfully,
Frank J. Spula
President
Polish American Congress
The Polish American Congress (PAC) is a U.S. umbrella organization of Polish-Americans and Polish-American organizations. Its membership is composed of fraternal, educational, veterans, religious, cultural, social, business, and political organizations, as well as individuals.