[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 111 (Thursday, August 11, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                KEN ARVEDON A FIGHTER FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

                                 ______


                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, August 11, 1994

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, when I began my full-time 
political work in the late 1960's, one of the people who made a deep, 
favorable, and long-lasting impression on me was a man named Ken 
Arvedon. He was then a lobbyist in a New England regional level for the 
National Council of Senior Citizens, and I learned from him that tough-
minded pragmatism and determined idealism were quite far from being 
inconsistent, as many had told me, but were in fact complimentary--
indeed, two essential halves of anyone who would be a whole, 
integrated, advocate for effective social change.
  In Boston politics at the time, and in much of the rest of the 
country as well, there then existed an unfortunate view that the 
political universe was divided between idealists who had no sense of 
how to accomplish things, and tough-minded pragmatists who were 
skillful at getting things done but had no particular interest in what 
those things were. Ken Arvedon was one of the first people I met who 
showed me how false this dichotomy was. He cared deeply about social 
justice, as he had for his whole life. From his service in the European 
theater during World War II, through his work in the American Veteran's 
Committee and for fair housing policies after the war, through his 
participation in the march to Selma on behalf of civil rights, to the 
period when I knew him as a forceful, thoughtful, and effective 
advocate for the National Council of Senior Citizens, Ken Arvedon 
showed that he could be as good as the most hard-headed pros at the 
game of politics while professing the idealistic credo that had always 
motivated him.
  Ken Arvedon scored a number of significant victories in his fights 
for fair treatment for older people at that time, and he always made 
sure that the fight for fair treatment for older people was put in the 
context of fair treatment for all of those in need. I am proud to have 
learned from him, and worked with him. I was sadden recently to learn 
of his death but his grandson Abraham of whom he was so proud and 
others can look back at his life with a deep pride that I hope will 
alleviate their sense of loss.

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