Governor Pataki,

My name is Michael Panayotou and I am a graduate of Union College (2001). I grew up in Upstate New York and now I attend Law School at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, TX.

I keep tabs on New York State news and I was proud to call myself a New Yorker when I heard about the Proclamation making October 6, 2002 the "80th Anniversary of the Commemoration of the Burning of Smyrna and the Persecution of the Greeks of Asia Minor."

As a Greek-American who has had grandparents and great-grandparents who were persecuted by the Turks because they were Greek, I was very touched by this proclamation. I think that many people are unaware that Hitler modeled the Holocaust off of the Armenian and Greek Genocide that happened just decades before.

It takes a lot of courage to enact such a proclamation -- the kind of courage I look for when I step into the voting booth (or, fill out an absentee ballot).

Make no mistake about it; it was the right thing to do.

If other public figures follow your great act, the truth can be known throughout the United States and the memory of the one-million who were slaughtered by Kemal's Turkey will not be forgotten.

Thank you very much.

Respectfully,

Michael Panayotou