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
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