After Polish President Lech Kaczynski's death yesterday, the city's Polish community has come together to mourn. Schools and churches across the city's Polish neighborhoods, including Greenpoint, have been centers for prayer and thought about the recent tragedy. One woman told the Post, "I feel so bad, I can’t describe it. I’m shaking. I voted for this president because he gave us hope for change. I just saw the church open and I wanted to go inside and pray."
The 60-year-old President, the first lady and several military officials were killed in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia yesterday morning. Heavy fog had been reported in the area before the crash, but investigators still do not know what caused the crash. Kaczynski was traveling to Russia for the 70th anniversary of the Russian massacre of Polish prisoners of war in the village of Katyn. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Vladimir Putin to head an inquiry commission at the scene of the crash, which former President Aleksander Kwasniewski called, “a damned place. It sends shivers down my spine.”
St. Stanislaus Kostka Church on Driggs Ave, which the president had visited two years ago, held an impromptu service yesterday, where about 400 people came to mourn. One woman told the Daily News, "We're shocked. These are our leaders. Without them, we are lost." The city's officials also expressed sadness at the crash. Sen. Hilary Clinton called Kaczynski "one of America’s most valued and trusted allies," and Mayor Bloomberg told New Yorkers to "keep the people of Poland in their thoughts and prayers." Gov. Paterson said, "I extend my deepest sympathies to the people of Poland, and to the nearly one million Polish-Americans living in New York."
