[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 103 (Thursday, July 25, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H5619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO HON. TONY HALL

  (Mr. McNULTY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, Tony Hall has been a friend of mine for 14 
years. When you have seen firsthand the enormity of the hunger problem 
on the face of this earth, you can understand the commitment of Tony 
Hall. My first appointment by a Speaker of this body was to the Select 
Committee on Hunger. And 3 months after that appointment, I was in 
Sudan with Mickey Leland, with Gary Ackerman, with my late friend Bill 
Emerson. And in that country the year before, 1988, 280,000 people 
starved to death, in that one country. I often use these numbers to 
illustrate sometimes that we do not have our priorities straight.

                              {time}  1515

  If a few thousand people die in Europe, we get involved in the 
conflict, as well we should. In the homeland of my ancestors, in 
Ireland, over the past 30 years in what we call ``The Troubles,'' 
between 3,000 and 4,000 people have died, and I think that is a lot of 
people; and I am glad we are getting involved in trying to bring peace 
in that conflict. But in that one year, in one country on the continent 
of Africa, 280,000 people starved to death, and somehow we do not as a 
Nation have the same commitment to doing something about that.
  In that one nation over the period of the last 20 years, more than 2 
million people have starved to death on what I call the forgotten 
continent.
  I can tell you, if any one person in this body has worked 
consistently to make sure that is not the forgotten continent, and that 
men, women, and children do not starve to death on this Earth of such 
great bounty, it is Tony Hall.
  I can remember when I was in one of those camps down in southern 
Sudan, it was either Mugud or Wau, and I looked out and I could see 
huge numbers of people, as far as the eye could see, without really 
knowing where their next meal was coming from. It was very moving to 
me.
  I remember turning to Tony's friend, Mickey, who was chairman of the 
select committee at the time, and saying to him, ``Mickey, how are we 
going to solve all of this?'' And he quoted the Talmud. He was giving 
me a lesson. He said, ``Mike, if you save one life, you save the 
world.'' That was his message to me, that each one of us has to do our 
own small part in trying to correct horrendous situations like that.
  No, none of us can solve all of the problems of the world, but if 
each of us helped in our own small way with whatever talents or 
resources we have, we could solve these problems. That is something 
that that teacher has demonstrated to me, and I thank him for it.
  I know there are many others who want to speak, Mr. Speaker; so I 
will abbreviate my remarks. I will just conclude by saying that Tony 
Hall is one of the people who lives the prayer of St. Francis and 
especially understands and demonstrates that it is in giving that we 
receive. He understands the fundamental principle, that life is to 
give, not to take.
  I salute you, my friend; and thank you for your commitment to the 
men, women, and children of this world.

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