Students Mourn Loss of Polish President
but Look Toward Future

By: Anna Gogala
April 30, 2010

Saturday, April 10th 2010, is now a date significant for most Poles.  On that day a plane carrying the Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, and more than seven dozen top politicians, military leaders, and intellectuals crashed near Smolensk, Russia, killing everyone onboard.

The breaking news about the crash appeared on all major networks around the world.  This was the first time that a country’s President along with much of the political elite died suddenly in one instant.  Students at our school were also curious about the event.  “It must be very sad for every Pole,” said Raine Kiveste, a student from Estonia, “because it’s a very big loss for the whole nation.”  Some, including fellow student Adriana Rurak, began to question whether this was just a tragic accident or, perhaps, an intentional plot to kill off Poland’s political leaders.  Others were simply asking why so many important people to the Polish government were allowed to fly on one plane.

Investigators into the crash will take a while to determine exactly what happened on that tragic day.  Those who think the crash was caused by bad weather and those who suspect it was not an accident, will probably not change their minds, regardless of the outcome of the investigation.  Despite the loss to Poland, the one good thing that came out of the tragedy is that people around the world have now heard of the 1940 Katyn massacre, a crime hidden by the Soviet Union for over fifty years.

In my opinion that terrible incident has shown that Poles really care about their country.

This was demonstrated after the crash, when hundreds of Poles were sitting together in front of the presidential palace lighting candles.

Despite all the sadness, I hope that Polish people will go on and try to work together for a better future. I also have hopes that the next government will prevent this from occurring again by disallowing so many government officials to fly on the same plane again.

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