Intimations of Mortality

I did not like the foreign policy of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, although it did seem to me that he appeared a tad more reasonable than his older twin brother Zaroslaw.  The political climate has also thawed generally from what was rapidly approaching former Cold War temperatures since the election of Barack Obama as US President in November 2008.  I am most certainly not the only person in Western Europe to breathe a heartfelt sigh of relief about that!  And Polish relations with arch-enemy Russia had also improved significantly in recent weeks.

Despite my dislike of and unease with President Kaczynski's foreign policy, never, ever would I have wished upon him, his wife and their entire entourage the terrible fate that awaited them early last Saturday morning!  Like so many, my heart goes out to the Polish people for the tragic loss not only of their President, but of their entire government, practically speaking.  In one horrific "fell swoop."

The President's body was repatriated to Warsaw on Sunday.

That this happened at all is awful.  That it happened in connection with an event that was to commemorate a terrible massacre of Polish citizens is especially poignant, as the Geneva Tribune editorializes today.  That it happened at a time when prospects looked good for relations between Russia and Poland to continue their thaw will perhaps remain a tragically missed opportunity.  That it happened, as it seems, as a result of human error is horrendous.  Finally, that it happened when there were other options available that were communicated to the pilots, that the same pilots had already aborted three previous attempts to land in pea-soup fog conditions, and that they still continued to attempt to land a fourth and fatal time is frankly incomprehensible.

Among those of us who have been frequent - or even infrequent - fliers, who has never known a few moments of absolute panic when an airplane hits rough weather and begins to pitch around?  Fortunately, for the great majority of us, moments of discomfort and fear remain only that: moments - however long they may have seemed at the time.  Once we are safely aground at our destination, we tend to forget them for the most part.  But many of us retain enough residual memory to identify quite closely with moments as we imagine them for those who have not been as fortunate.  For example, as someone who had been a passenger on Swissair Flight 111 from JFK to Geneva (it was literally referred to here as the "U.N. Shuttle") and who had had several visiting family members and friends take the same flight number and route, I, like so many here, was literally in shock about its tragic crash on 2 September 1998.  I had also visited beautiful Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia, near where the plane crashed into the Atlantic, so it was especially touching.

Another more recent example is that of Air France Flight 447, from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009.  What made that crash memorable for me was that one of my good friends and neighbors here is a career pilot with Air France.  He explained the routine procedures for such circumstances to me and described firsthand the horrific experience in Paris as families and friends desperately awaited - most often fruitlessly - any news of their loved ones and Air France employees awaited news of their lost colleagues, all too easily able to imagine themselves in their places.  One of the most difficult things about that crash is that the cause will likely never be known.  Investigation has been severely hampered by the lack of the flight data recorders, eyewitness accounts and radar tracks.  Messages from the plane simply stopped arriving somewhere between Brazilian and Senegalese-controlled airspace.  Only 51 bodies were recovered.

One nephew, son of Healer Sis, is of Polish descent on his father's side.  I also attended secondary school with children from the many Polish families, often Holocaust survivors, who were resettled in the United States after WWII.  The last major project I worked on dealt extensively with Eastern Europe and I had as colleagues several Polish nationals, principally because their linguistic skills were absolutely required.  They were delightful colleagues, with an impressive and conscientious work ethic coupled with a willingness to learn and share that inspired my latent teaching tendencies to new heights.   They helped to ensure that my final pre-retirement work experience was one of my most memorable and definitely one of my most pleasant.

My heart goes out to the Polish people and their country.  You have already proven that you can rise again from some of the most terrible tragedies inflicted on mankind.   I have no doubt that you will do it again, although it is immeasurably sad that you must do so.  Take the time to mourn and reflect.  You have many friends who want only to support you and to let you know that they admire and love you in this most recent instance of your national mourning.