[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 37 (Thursday, March 20, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1189-H1190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            OMEGA BOYS CLUB

  (Mr. ARMEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I am honored today to have my friends, the 
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi] and the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Dellums] join me in presenting the Freedom Works Award 
to the Omega Boys Club of San Francisco.
  I established the Freedom Works Award to celebrate freedom by 
recognizing individuals and groups who promote personal responsibility 
instead of a reliance on government.
  The Omega Boys Club was founded by Joe Marshall and Jack Jackwa in 
1987 with a mission to rescue inner city youth from the influence of 
gangs, drugs, and violence. Since its founding, the club has taken more 
than 600 children off gang warfare and drug dealing and has pushed 
them, tutored them, and even raised enough money to send them, 140 of 
them, to colleges around the country.
  The club has enjoyed these positive results without receiving a 
single penny of Federal assistance. Instead they have relied on the 
personal initiative taken by Joe Marshall, Jack Jackwa, Margaret 
Norris, Coach Wilbur Jiggetts, and other Omega members.
  The success of the Omega Boys Club is based on these four principles:
  There is nothing more important than an individual's life;
  A friend will never lead you to danger;
  Change begins with you;
  Respect comes from within.
  Mr. Speaker, government alone cannot solve our Nation's problems. 
That does not mean we simply throw our hands up in frustration. It 
means every single one of us, no matter what our politics, must roll up 
our sleeves and do the work each of us is capable of doing to rebuild 
our neighborhoods and communities. Every day, groups like the Omega 
Boys Club demonstrate the understanding that with freedom comes 
responsibility.
  Sadly enough, youth violence has taken more than twice as many 
American lives each year as cancer, heart disease, and car accidents 
combined.
  Today's inner city children need hope, they need love, they need a 
place to go where they know someone cares. They have found all these 
things, and more, in the Omega Boys Club.
  If we are a great country today, and if we are to be a great country 
in the future, it will be because of groups like the Omega Boys Club, 
who have recognized their freedom to dream, and who have voluntarily 
taken upon themselves the responsibility for making America's best 
dreams come true.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ARMEY. I yield to the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi].
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas 
[Mr. Armey], the distinguished majority leader, for awarding his 
Freedom Works Award to the Omega Boys Club of San Francisco. It is a 
national organization now. As he says, it is about self-initiative, it 
is about respect for the individual.

[[Page H1190]]

  The Omega Boys Club, and Joe Marshall, who is here today, as the 
gentleman mentioned, and others, Jack Jackwa, who have been involved in 
its founding, seek to reduce violence and to provide higher education 
to children, giving them something to say yes to.
  I am pleased to join with the majority leader in giving this high 
acknowledgment and recognition of their fine work. Nothing that any of 
us do is more important than the work of the Omega Boys Club.
  Mr. ARMEY. With the Speaker's continued indulgence and the kind 
consideration given by my colleagues, I yield to the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Dellums] for a brief closing statement.
  Mr. DELLUMS. Mr. Speaker, it is with a great deal of pride and 
pleasure that I join my distinguished colleagues, the gentleman from 
Texas [Mr. Armey] and the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi], as 
we come together to present the majority leader's Freedom Works Award 
to an extraordinary, inspired, and inspiring young man, Joe Marshall, 
who is the executive director of the Omega Boys Club, that has 
intervened positively in the lives of over 600 young people, moving 
them from gang activity and violence and drug abuse to a higher quality 
of life.
  It would seem to me that the extraordinary byproduct of all of this, 
as the distinguished majority leader picked up the book, ``Street 
Soldiers'' and began to read about the inspired work of this 
extraordinary young man, it says to all of us that when we begin to 
understand the reality of each of our respective constituencies, it 
lifts the level of our awareness and it helps us understand that when 
we are prepared to positively intervene, providing options and 
opportunities, that young people can move to a higher quality of life.
  So it is with a great deal of pride and pleasure that I stand here on 
a bipartisan basis as we embrace the work of this extraordinary young 
man and this extraordinary agency.

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