; Whereas the European Parliament resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism of April 2, 2009, established a day of remembrance for victims of Soviet and Nazi regimes to remember and commemorate their victims; Whereas the extreme forms of totalitarian rule practiced by the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships led to premeditated and vast crimes committed against millions of human beings and their basic and inalienable rights on a scale unseen before in history; Whereas hundreds of thousands of human beings, fleeing the crimes perpetrated by the Nazi and Soviet regimes sought and found refuge in the United States; Whereas millions of Americans of Baltic and Eastern and Central European descent who personally fled or whose families fled those regimes have made unique and significant cultural, economic, social, and other contributions to help build the United States; Whereas the members of Baltic Way, a peaceful political demonstration uniting two million people in their quest for independence of the Baltic States on August 23, 1989, joined hands and formed a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, launching a new chapter in the history of the Baltic States and leaving behind the bitter legacy of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; Whereas August 23 would be an appropriate date to designate as Black Ribbon Day to remember and never forget the terror millions of citizens of the Baltic countries, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe countries experienced for over half a century by ruthless military, economic, and political repression, including arbitrary executions, mass arrests, deportations, the suppression of free speech, confiscation of private property, and the destruction of cultural and moral identity and civil society, all of which deprived individuals of their basic human rights and dignity