[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 62 (Thursday, May 18, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S4121]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE GUEST CHAPLAIN

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, it is my great privilege today to introduce 
to my colleagues in the Senate a very special person who is here with 
us, a long time friend of mine and a true leader, nationally as well as 
in Massachusetts, the Rev. Eugene Rivers.
  Reverend Rivers is the pastor of the Azusa Christian Community in 
Four Corners, which is an inner-city community in Boston. He honored 
the Senate today by delivering our opening prayer, asking particularly 
that each and every one of us are bestowed with the wisdom to turn our 
fears into courage so that we will have the power to make good 
decisions even in bad situations. I think those words are particularly 
important to us in the context of this debate in the last few days.
  Not only should we be touched by Gene Rivers' words this morning, but 
I emphasize to my colleagues the degree to which the words of this 
person of the cloth and the acts of life come from his heart. As 
someone who knows him and has worked with him and has been inspired by 
him, I can tell my colleagues that he is the living embodiment of the 
words he shared with us today. Those words reflect the important work 
that he has made his life's work--walking often in places of danger, 
always in places of difficulty, in order to try to bring the word of 
God and the spirit to our fellow citizens--in fact, the citizens of the 
world.
  Gene Rivers comes from a place that understands some of the toughest 
fights in our country. He was born and raised in south Chicago and in 
northwest Philadelphia. He found himself in a bad situation as a gang 
member. He was struggling to break free from the life that he knew was 
either going to take him to jail or to a cemetery.
  After, from that difficult life of the streets, Reverend Rivers 
persevered and he attended Harvard University and then did studies at 
the Divinity School. Ultimately, he has returned to the streets to live 
out his inner self in the spirit that commands his life. He has been 
part of what we call the Boston Miracle. As he puts it, he has let God 
use him to fight the gangs. Most recently, through his tremendous 
efforts in Boston, with Operation 2006 and the Baker House, my staff 
and I have seen Gene Rivers go out into the community, knocking on 
doors, standing on street corners to develop the services and 
assistance and the inspiration that so many young people need. He works 
very closely with the law enforcement authorities in helping to defuse 
the danger of the gangs.
  As a consequence of his hands-on efforts, we went through, I think, 
almost a 2-year period in which we had not one young person killed in 
the city of Boston. He is consistently working to try to defuse those 
kinds of situations. Because of his direct hands-on action, Operation 
2006 reduces juvenile violence and it brings the community together in 
ways that perhaps no one in public life could do without that special 
kind of connection.
  I might add that, since then, Gene Rivers has tackled a much larger 
call beyond Massachusetts. The Senate this year has become particularly 
aware of the devastation taking place in Africa as a result of the AIDS 
epidemic. Gene Rivers has tackled that issue, challenging leaders in 
Africa, as well as leaders here, to engage in a candid discussion that 
tries to bring us all together in a united effort to deal with this 
terrible scourge. He has helped to make us all aware of the 
responsibility to do something about this, and he has had an impact.
  Reverend Rivers was, in fact, the subject of a cover story in 
Newsweek magazine, I think a little over a year ago. They described him 
as an ``intellectual burst of firecrackers spinning off ideas and 
energy.''
  He has been called an ``impolitic preacher'' and a man of action. 
Today, I simply want to thank him for always answering the call of 
leadership, for battling, from every day for the souls and safety of 
our inner-city kids to standing up to halt the spread of AIDS 
throughout Africa. I thank him for being a great voice of our 
generation, and he graces us with his wisdom and his prayers. I extend 
my heartfelt thanks to Rev. Eugene Rivers for his guidance, his 
friendship, and his leadership.




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