[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 194 (Tuesday, December 18, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15899-S15900]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING REPRESENTATIVE JULIA CARSON

  Mr. BAYH. Mr. President, in remembrance of Congresswoman Julia 
Carson, who died on December 15, 2007, I have printed in the Record a 
column written by former Representative Andy Jacobs Jr. of Indiana.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record as follows:

                Remembering Congress's Jewel Named Julia

       ``Look where he came from and look where he went; and 
     wasn't he a kind of tough struggler all his life right up to 
     the finish?'' The words are those of Carl Sandburg in praise 
     of Abraham Lincoln. The same praise could and should be said 
     of our sister, the late Rep. Julia Carson (D-Ind.), who has 
     passed beyond the sound of our voices into the sunset of her 
     temporal life and into a dawn of history.
       Where did she come from? Same place as Lincoln--Kentucky. 
     And like him, she was born both to physical poverty and 
     spiritual wealth, and moved to Indiana.
       Another similarity: Julia also had an ``angel mother,'' 
     Velma Porter, who put a lot of physical, mental and spiritual 
     nutrients into the little flowerpot of her only child.
       Fast-forward to a month after my first and improbable 
     election to Congress. I was told by mutual friends that at 
     the Chrysler UAW office, I could find a remarkable woman to 
     join me as a co-worker in my Washington Congressional office. 
     Remarkable? Understatement. Thus began my 47-year friendship 
     and, eventually, virtual sibling-ship with the already 
     honorable Julia Carson, one of the most intelligent, ethical, 
     industrious and compassionate people I have ever known.
       Check out her first Congressional brainstorm. It started a 
     national trend. Why make constituents in need of 
     Congressional assistance with bureaucratic problems travel 
     all the way to D.C. to get it? Why not take that part of the 
     office to them? So we adopted her suggestion and did our 
     ``case work'' in Indianapolis with Julia at the helm. It set 
     an example that has been followed by other Congressional 
     offices all over the country ever since. OK, there was one 
     other factor. She had two little kids she preferred to rear 
     in Indianapolis, doing well by her kids by doing good for her 
     country.
       Later, my refusal to bring home a particularly pernicious 
     piece of political pork earned me a severe gerrymander that, 
     together with the Nixon landslide, ejected me from Congress. 
     Nothing is all bad; the beneficiary of the gerrymander was my 
     much-admired friend, Bill Hudnut (R). That was the year I had 
     to talk Julia into running for the state House of 
     Representatives. She thought it would be disloyal to our 
     friendship because it would take her away from my campaign, 
     which was a campaign of futility that year.
       She was elected to the state House, where she served with 
     distinction and, in time, she became a state Senator, again 
     gaining friends and admirers on both sides of the aisle.
       Still later, she became the Center Township trustee and 
     produced real ``welfare reform,'' not with ignorant 
     histrionic speeches and braggadocio, but with hard, quiet and 
     meticulous work. It was reform that broke no poor child's 
     heart, nor sent such a child to bed hungry. She not only 
     ferreted out welfare cheats, but also sued them and got the 
     money back for the taxpayers. Her reform wiped out a long-
     standing multimillion-dollar debt, moving the then-Marion 
     County Republican auditor to say, ``She wrestled the monster 
     to the ground.''

[[Page S15900]]

       Julia was unique in that she was the only human being ever 
     to be named Woman of the Year by The Indianapolis Star on two 
     different occasions.
       It was common parlance to say, ``Congresswoman Carson's 
     people,'' a reference to poor black constituents. Rubbish. 
     The 7th district is about 70 percent nonblack and ``her 
     people'' were all the people of the 7th, regardless of 
     physical or economic description. Millionaires can be treated 
     unjustly by the federal government just as middle- and low-
     income citizens can. And wherever there was injustice, this 
     Lincoln-like lady was there to redress it. Her political 
     philosophy was a plank from the Sermon on the Mount: 
     ``Blessed are they who thirst for justice.''
       There's another one: ``Blessed are the peacemakers.'' She 
     cast our vote against the conspicuously unconstitutional 
     resolution that gave the Cheney gang a fig leaf to order our 
     innocent military to the fraudulent and internationally 
     illegal blood-soaked blunder in Iraq.
       Julia called me just before she cast that vote and said 
     that, in view of the dishonesty, panic and jingoism of the 
     moment, she expected to lose the next election. ``Courage,'' 
     my mother said, ``is fear that has said its prayers.''
       Our Julia, who art in Heaven.

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