Noblesse Oblige

When talking about nobility and parliamentarism,

it is worth mentioning my grandfather from my father's side.
He came from poor gentry (as they said about themselves),
up to 94 years old - he wore a Sarmatian, bushy mustache,
had in sequence three wives and a total of a dozen or so children.
He lived from land and fishing.1

... Being a foreign correspondent in Minsk,

I often heard from locals that my surname
(in a slightly changed form) is known in Belarus.

I checked in Warsaw in one of heraldic sources.

The noted beginnings of the family reach (if I remember correctly)
the 14th century and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The etymology of the surname may indicate someone
who kept hunting dogs.

Whereas, if we are talking about parliamentarism,

it is worth mentioning that I spent the entire decade (1990s)
in the Sejm and the Senate2, reporting - among other activities - 3
on the deliberations of the parliamentary committees,
also on the effects of plenary meetings.

Driven by a democratic virtue (a concept from Montesquieu),

and led by a sense of noble honor,
along with others,
I grinded the rough relics of despotism successfully.

MMXVIII

1 in Mazovia, Poland
2 lower and upper house of parliament
3 as a journalist