[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 146 (Tuesday, November 14, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2098-E2099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             YATES TRIBUTE

                                 ______
                                 

                    HON. JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 14, 2000

  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, the late great Reverend Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, ``Every man must decide if he will 
walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive 
selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most urgent and persistent 
question is what are you doing for others?'' If service is the 
judgment, then heaven's gates have greeted the late Congressman Sidney 
R. Yates with open arms. Mr. Yates spent his life tirelessly, 
shamelessly, and unselfishly advocating for others who would have 
otherwise gone unheard. Our country would be a much better place if we 
all did.
  Although our nation is a great one, it has not . . . because our laws 
and our statesmen, have not, always served the interests of certain 
persons and certain disciplines very well. However, in his more than 
sixty years of public service, Sidney Yates always did. I applaud him 
as a protector of the arts, a protector of the environment, a protector 
of children, and a protector of civil rights. His advocacy in these 
areas has never wavered.

[[Page E2099]]

  I do not merely regard Mr. Yates as a great statesman for what he 
did, but when he did what he did. Sidney Yates has often stood up for 
people when doing so was not only unpopular, but in many instances, 
taboo. His advocacy for civil rights predates back to the 1940s, even 
though the Civil Rights Act was not passed until 1964. As the last of 
the New Deal Democrats and against the persistence of an emerging Grand 
Old Party majority in the 1990s, he fought to save, and did save, the 
National Education Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, 
and the nuclear submarine program. Furthermore, his leadership efforts 
have saved innumerable national parks and led to the establishment of 
the National Memorial Holocaust Museum. These are but a few of his 
contributions. Perhaps even more intriguing than what he accomplished 
was how he went about his work.
  Although Congressman Yates was a hard worker, he, unlike many of us, 
was a rather silent and modest one. In his close to fifty years on 
Capitol Hill, he never held a press conference. He never even had a 
press secretary. He conducted his affairs and gained the trust and 
respect of his constituents the old-fashioned way. He earned it one act 
and one handshake at a time.
  Although Sidney goes down as a member of Congress who served for the 
longest period of time, serving twenty-four full terms, his status when 
leaving the House in 1998 did not reflect that. His service record was 
interrupted in 1962 when he ran for a seat in the United States Senate 
for which he was unsuccessful. Although he won his U.S. House of 
Representatives seat back in 1964, but for his lack of continuity, he 
ranked 27th on the House Appropriations Committee when he otherwise 
would have been chairman. Although frustrated, as any of us would be, 
his manner of working and dedication to the betterment of life for 
America's citizens never faltered. A well-deserved honor, in 1993, 
toward the end of his career, President Clinton bestowed the 
Presidential Citizens Medal of Honor on Congressman Yates for his 
efforts on behalf of the arts and humanities.
  Mr. Yates' belief has always been ``[e]very civilization throughout 
history, you know, has been judged not by its military conquests but by 
its civilized achievements.'' He lived his life with this quote as his 
guide. Let it guide our lives. As we bid farewell to the great Sidney 
Yates, may his spirit of service to every American forever live in all 
of us.

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