[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 9, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  TRIBUTE TO SHEILA BROCKMAN AND THE STUDENTS OF ST. ANTHONY'S SCHOOL

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                           HON. JERRY WELLER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 9, 1999

  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Ms. Sheila 
Brockman and her junior high school science class of St. Anthony's 
School in Streator, Illinois for their remarkable and successful 
efforts to save Pluto from demotion as a planet.
  Earlier this year, the Minor Planet Center, a division of the 
International Astronomical Union, responsible for monitoring the 
comets, asteroids and other bodies orbiting the sun, proposed that 
Pluto be given a number and considered only a minor planet.
  Pluto was discovered on February 16, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a native 
of Streator, Illinois while working at the Lowell Observatory in 
Flagstaff, Arizona. Mr. Tombaugh was the only American and one of just 
five people in history to discover a planet orbiting the sun.
  Expressing their pride in Mr. Tombaugh's significant achievement, the 
St. Anthony students, led by Ms. Brockman, quickly began a letter 
writing campaign to the International Astronomical Union. The protest 
movement launched by the St. Anthony students drew support from schools 
around the State of Illinois and national media attention.
  As a result of the growing public outrage raised by the leadership of 
Ms. Brockman and the St. Anthony students, the International 
Astronomical Union announced from its headquarters in Paris, France 
that it would be making no proposal to change the status of Pluto as 
the ninth planet in the solar system.
  I wholeheartedly commend Ms. Brockman and the St. Anthony students 
both for their pride in the City of Streator and its history and also 
for their realization that in America a small group of citizens taking 
a strong stand for something in which they believe can make a 
difference.

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