[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 88 (Thursday, June 27, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO MITCH KEHETIAN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 26, 2002

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate an articulate 
and well-respected voice in local journalism, Mitch Kehetian, as he is 
honored by the Metro Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional 
Journalists with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
  Mr. Kehetian has served the public for almost fifty years as a 
reporter and editor of community newspapers. In his early twenties he 
went to work as a reporter for the Detroit Times. He brought his 
reporting skills to Macomb County, Michigan at the Mount Clemens 
Monitor-Leader. The Monitor-Leader became the Macomb Daily and Mr. 
Kehetian rose through the ranks to his current position as Editorial 
Page Editor.
  Mr. Kehetian's work can be summarized with three words: community, 
responsibility, and passion. He has editorialized about the widest 
range of issues, always using his straightforward, commonsense approach 
to make a clear and concise point. He has written about a variety of 
local issues, from weighing in on a controversial community issue, to 
honoring a young person or community activist. He has written about 
regional issues always paying special attention to the future of the 
City of Detroit, about issues impacting our entire State and vital 
national issues including domestic policy, politics and international 
affairs. He has opined passionately about human rights, highlighting 
the plight of the Iraqi people under Saddam Hussein, the children of 
Afghanistan, the conflict in the Middle East, and the longstanding 
refusal by Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
  In his work, especially the latter editorials, you can see an image 
of Mitch Kehetian himself On April 29, 2002, Mr. Kehetian wrote, 
``Through the years, I've written reports about my journey to 
historical, Turkish-occupied Armenia in search of my Armenian roots. I 
found that the homeland of my ancestors lacks historical markers to 
tell the curious that for 3,000 years Armenians lived in what today is 
eastern Turkey. Through the years I've been repeatedly asked why people 
of Armenian heritage can't forget what happened in 1915-20, especially 
those of my generation who weren't even born then. I cannot forget. As 
a child growing up in southwest Detroit's ethnic neighborhood, I had 
only one grandparent, one aunt, three uncles and a handful of cousins. 
All the others were murdered in the Turkish genocide of the Armenian 
people. . . . This American of Armenian heritage cannot forget.''
  Mr. Speaker, I have enjoyed the opportunity to work in the same 
communities as Mitch Kehetian and to observe his work. He has been a 
voice for elevating the role of Macomb County and its place in the 
State of Michigan. Today, I join the residents of Macomb County, and 
his colleagues in the journalism profession, in saluting his 
distinguished career, thanking him for his years of service, and 
encouraging him to keep those editorials coming.

                          ____________________