[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 150 (Tuesday, October 20, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 STATEMENT ON MAYOR BARRY'S RETIREMENT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 20, 1998

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, as many in the Congress know, Mayor Marion 
Barry has decided to leave office at the end of this year after 16 
years of service as Mayor. I issued a statement when Mayor Barry 
announced his retirement in May. I ask for permission to include that 
statement in the Congressional Record.

       After a lifetime of public service and devotion to this 
     city, my friend Marion Barry is leaving office with the city 
     on the rebound. Sometimes controversial, always congenial, 
     Marion leaves with his infectious optimism about the city he 
     loves intact. The man who invented politics in D.C. was also 
     its most skillful and resilient practitioner. He always 
     called me his ``warrior'' on the Hill. I always knew that my 
     old civil rights buddy would no more settle for second class 
     citizenship here than he did in the movement. Whatever our 
     differences, Marion Barry was my friend before he was Mayor, 
     and he will be my friend when he is no longer Mayor. I wish 
     him well.

     

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