Lech Wałęsa receives Lincoln Leadership Prize

Lech Walesa receives prize from Dr. Carla Knorowski: photo – EPA/Kamil Krzaczynski

The distinction is conferred on people whose “lives and actions exemplify Lincoln’s legacy of leadership”.

At a reception in Wałęsa’s honour held in Chicago, Thursday night, Carla Knorowski, the Director of the Foundation, said that Poland’s former president, through his actions for reforms, democracy and equality of all men, is a perfect embodiment of Lincoln’s ideas.

She described Lech Wałęsa as a man of action, strength and faith.

Lech Wałęsa thanked the foundation for “having been associated with that great man”.

Asked by journalists how it feels to be compared with Lincoln, he said: “I’ll have to think seriously about it. For sure Lincoln fought for freedom. I did the same, but these were different epochs.”

During the reception, Wałęsa’s portrait was unveiled and will be displayed at an exhibition on his life and political career at the Presidential Library and the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois.

The Lincoln Leadership Prize was established in 2006. Its past recipients include Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, US astronaut James Lovell Jr. and the late television journalist Tim Russert.

February 13 will mark the 203 rd anniversary of President Lincoln’s birth. The day is an official holiday in Illinois and several other states. (mk/pg)