[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 34 (Thursday, March 16, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E403]]
       OLYMPIC GOLD FOR REFUGEES OF DARFUR: THANK YOU JOEY CHEEK!

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 16, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to applaud an Olympic Champion Gold 
Medal winner speed-skater Joey Cheek. Joey Cheek won the Olympic Gold 
Medal in the men's 500-meter speed skating race in Turin, Italy on 
February 13, 2006. Minutes after he won the race while millions of 
Americans and almost a billion listeners from around the world were 
focused solely on him, Cheek used his ``fifteen minutes of fame'' to 
announce he was donating his prize money to child refugees from Darfur. 
Cheek, citing the U.S. government finding of genocide in the Darfur 
region of Sudan, said he wanted to sponsor programs for 60,000 children 
of Darfur forced into refugee camps in Chad.
  For Joey Cheek, competing in the Olympics was a blessing and his way 
of saying thanks for his opportunity, was to help others. Before 
answering any questions about his winning race, Cheek announced he 
would talk to and challenge all Olympic sponsors and participants to 
match his gift.
  When Mr. Cheek won the Silver Medal in the 1000 meter he donated his 
$15,000 prize money. By the end of the Olympics, Mr. Cheek donated his 
total money from the US Olympic Committee, $40,000, to victims of 
genocide in Darfur. By the end of the Olympic Games, ABC's announcer, 
Bob Costas reported that Cheek's challenge had brought in donations of 
$300,000 for the refugees from Darfur.
  Joey Cheek is an Olympic champion, but he is more; he is a citizen 
champion: a person who demonstrated the true American values of his 
country: generosity, compassion, kindness and goodness of heart. Mr. 
Cheek is not a rich man; he is 27 years old. He had already announced 
the 2006 games would be his last Olympics. In donating what might have 
been his one and only time to bask in triumph before a world-wide 
audience for his skating skills, Joey Cheek revealed his heart. He 
demonstrated something I believe lives in the hearts of all the 
compassionate people of this country; altruism, a pure selfless gift to 
men, women and children who, without our help, are destined to die.

  UNICEF's website says 1.4 million Sudanese children, including 
500,000 age five or younger, have been displaced from the Darfur region 
by militia groups, including the Janjaweed militia, that have destroyed 
villages, brutally killed men and children and raped women as the means 
of annihilating an entire people because they are non-Arab, black 
Africans. The Government in Khartoum has been complicit in these mass 
murders and slow starvation of at least 300,000 people. Two and one-
half million people of Darfur have been displaced, their villages 
burned, their crops destroyed and their well water poisoned with the 
bodies of their children, spouses, brothers, sisters, fathers and 
mothers.
  In February of this year, I signed a bipartisan letter to the 
President along with 80 of my colleagues, Democrat and Republican, in 
the House of Representatives asking Mr. Bush to exercise badly needed 
leadership to stop the genocide in Darfur. This is the first genocide 
that can be stopped. The 7000 African Union (AU) peacekeepers 
protecting the people in Darfur are good, but they are not enough to 
save the tribes of Darfur. They need help. According to the experts, 
the genocide could be stopped, it would cease, if there were 20,000 
peacekeepers to provide genuine security. My colleagues and I wrote the 
letter in February because for 28 days the United States was the 
President of the United Nations Security Council. We hoped the 
President would seize this moment to do what no other President has 
done: stop genocide. Although we are not now the President of the UN 
Security Council, it does not mean we cannot act to stop the genocide.
  Not one other winner of any medal did a deed as great as Joey 
Cheek's. I am proud of every American Olympian who worked so hard and 
made us proud by winning gold, silver and bronze medals at the 
Olympics, but I believe what Mr. Cheek did is worthy of special 
recognition and celebration; he set an example, a standard for the 
people of America. He is one person who made a huge difference to 
children, many of whom are orphans, victims of genocide by the 
government of Sudan in Khartoum.
  Joey Cheek told the media that he wants to help Darfur refugee 
children to live but he also hopes they will be able to learn and play 
sports. If more citizens would follow Mr. Cheek's example, his vision 
of the children of Darfur being children not victims, would not be out 
of reach.
  There is a teaching from the Talmud: ``He who saves one life has 
saved the world.'' Joey Cheek started what I hope will be a beginning 
for many who want to express their moral values as Mr. Cheek has done. 
Every citizen may not be able to give money for Darfur, but he or she 
can ask his pastor, priest, imam or rabbi to speak out at every service 
and remind their congregations that genocide is happening. It is a long 
slow genocide that has gone on for three years. Each citizen can also 
call on the Administration to stop the genocide now. It is within the 
power of this greatest country on earth to end the horrific suffering 
of people who are being murdered, starved, raped and mutilated because 
they are non-Arab Africans. Each person can do something to save a life 
in Darfur and to save the world.

                          ____________________