[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 105 (Monday, July 29, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RECOGNIZING THE SERVICE OF TONY HALL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EVA M. CLAYTON

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 26, 2002

  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor my dear friend and 
colleague Tony Hall as he prepares to accept the nomination as the 
ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Agencies of the United Nations. 
Although I extend my very best wishes to Tony Hall, I rise on this 
occasion with great sadness at the realization that this Congress will 
soon be losing one of its finest members. Tony Hall is a man who shows 
courage in the face of adversity, integrity when there is little to be 
found, and compassion when the prevailing winds blow with malice.
  Throughout his career, Tony Hall has served as the moral conscience 
of Congress on issues of hunger and poverty. Where there is hardship 
and injustice Tony Hall is the first to enter the fray and the last to 
leave. During his career in Congress, Tony Hall has often traveled into 
the heart of distress. When Ethiopia was in the grips of a massive 
famine in 1984-1985, Tony was there experiencing firsthand the grim 
reality that most of us viewed at a distance on our televisions. When 
reports started trickling out about the growing deprivation in North 
Korea, Tony was the first to travel there and he later traveled there 5 
more times and kept his colleagues here in Congress appraised of the 
situation. When no one else had the courage to do so, it was Tony who 
traveled to Iraq, against the advice of many, to assess the suffering 
of the innocent.
  I am certain that you are familiar with the proverb ``Ease and honor 
are seldom bedfellows.'' This proverb applies to no one more than Tony 
Hall. It should come as a surprise to no one that Tony Hall has been 
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and I imagine that, as Tony embarks 
upon his journey as the Ambassador to the United Nations Food and 
Agriculture Program, we may well hear his name again mentioned in 
connection with the Nobel Peace Prize.
  The departure of Tony Hall from this Congress will leave a void of 
leadership on the issue of hunger. There are many here who have worked 
with Tony and supported his efforts in world hunger but there are none 
who have so relentlessly and singlemindedly reminded this Congress and 
this country of our obligation to the least among us. As we honor 
Tony's effort on the eve of his departure, I want to urge my colleagues 
to step into the space left by Tony's departure and take up the reins 
of leadership in combating world hunger.
  Not only is Tony Hall a man of conviction and compassion, but he is 
also a man of deep and abiding faith. All of us who know Tony know that 
his convictions are grounded, first and foremost, in his faith in a God 
who has charged us to feed the hungry and to shelter the naked. It is 
this faith that gives Tony such grace in the face of adversity and his 
firm kindness when he stands alone.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a passage from the book of Isaiah that I love 
and that I think speaks to Tony's steadfast efforts to raise up the 
struggles of the poor and hungry around the world. I would like to 
recite it now in honor of Tony's efforts.

     And if you give yourself to the hungry
     And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
     Then your light will rise in darkness
     And your gloom will become like midday.
     And the LORD will continually guide you,
     And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
     And (give strength to your bones;
     And you will be like a watered garden,
     And like a (spring of water whose waters do not fail.
     Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins;
     You will raise up the age-old foundations;
     And you will be called the repairer of the breach,
     The restorer of the streets in which to dwell.

  Mr. Speaker, Tony Hall has given himself to the hungry and his light 
has risen in the darkness. In so doing, he has spread this light to his 
colleagues and he has shed light on the actions that we must take to 
satisfy the desire of the afflicted.
  Because of his efforts, Tony Hall is what the book of Isaiah calls a 
``repairer of the breach and the restorer of streets in which to 
dwell,'' and for this Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank and honor our friend 
and colleague Tony Hall and to wish him God's blessings as he departs 
for Rome to continue his work to erase the blight of world hunger.

                          ____________________