Political Quotes

“I rise as a result of the resolution offered earlier today commemorating the tragic deaths of so many Polish leaders, especially the death of Tomasz Merta, who is the Minister of Culture in Poland. I worked with Tomasz Merta a couple times over the last 25 years. In the early 1990s, he was a very young man, was still in his twenties, and he worked with Ohio State's Mershon Center, where I worked, helping his country's government transition from communism to democracy. We worked on everything from curricula writing to training teachers. I worked with him again when I was a Member of Congress. This time I went to Ukraine, and he helped us train Ukrainian teachers, helped write curriculum, and help those Ukrainian teachers teach government courses on civic education in Kiev. So Tomasz Merta, born in 1965, graduate of Warsaw University, got a Ph.D. His whole career was all about love of country, all about democracy, all about doing the right thing. He, in the nineties and since, was a prolific writer. He wrote articles about democracy, articles about teaching democracy, articles about building democracy. He was so important to this country. He was one of the youngest leaders who was killed on this terrible, tragic flight. He had a terrific future. He was the Secretary of State and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. We will all miss him. Tomasz, as his nickname was--Tomek is his real name. Tomasz is like Thomas and Tommy.”