[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 103 (Thursday, July 25, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1376-E1377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING THE LIFE OF TIMOTHY WHITE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                          HON. KAREN McCARTHY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 25, 2002

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, we rise to honor Timothy White, a man of 
integrity, passion, and music. Tim, the late editor of Billboard 
Magazine, died on June 27, 2002, at the age of 50.
  Many of you may not have known Tim White, but his influence was felt 
not just in the music industry, but here in Washington. While Tim's 
passion for music and artists made him a champion and a challenger of 
the music industry, he played an important role in the fight for reform 
here. From his office in New York, he increased Billboard's coverage of 
Capitol Hill and shared with Bill Holland, the Washington 
correspondent, the prestigious ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for 
investigative stories on musical copyright and the ownership of sound 
recordings.
  Tim also was a writer, and a superb one. He wrote about what he loved 
most, music. He saw in our culture an emptiness, with little to replace 
it. Entertainment, he wrote, ``is heartening because it celebrates the 
human scale . . .; there is extra-industry fascination with the record 
charts because they are the one mirror in which we can still glimpse 
our collective will, lending an air of control and logic to a landscape 
that sometimes appears on the brink of chaos. At its high end, 
rock'n'roll can periodically fill in the hollows of this faithless 
era--especially when the music espouses values that carry a ring of 
emotional candor.'' Being a writer, Tim was an outspoken defender of 
free speech and spurred others to new levels of creativity, both in 
word and in song.
  Tim didn't just write about music, though; he lived it. His life is 
an example of how one man can and did make a difference. He had a 
passion for what's right and was not afraid to pursue that goal, 
whether it was to force a change in the music business or through the 
hearing rooms in Congress. He also never missed an opportunity to 
champion a forgotten or still undiscovered artist.
  As Don Henley, a close friend of Tim, said, ``What comes mostly to 
mind when I think of him is integrity. In an age when looking the other 
way and moral compromise have become our common cultural traits, 
Timothy

[[Page E1377]]

White would have no part of it. He was not for sale.''
  It is Tim's emotional candor that will be missed and we mourn his 
loss. As we honor Tim's memory, we should aspire to hold to the same 
ideals that Tim exhibited throughout his life: integrity, commitment 
and compassion.

                          ____________________