[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 13, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E185-E186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




EXPRESSING THE CONDOLENCES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON THE DEATH 
     OF THE HONORABLE TOM LANTOS, A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STATE OF 
                               CALIFORNIA

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 12, 2008

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of 
Congressman Tom Lantos, our beloved friend and colleague, who passed 
away on Monday morning from esophagus cancer.
  Believers in human rights and oppressed peoples around the world have 
suffered a terrible blow with the loss of Tom Lantos. He was a tireless 
champion for those suffering oppression and violence and 
discrimination, and the world is quite simply a more painful place with 
his passing. Every time a human rights issue came up on the House 
floor, Tom was always there, speaking out for the voiceless.
  Tom's experiences escaping Nazi concentration camps twice as a 
teenager and losing most of his immediate family in the carnage of the 
Holocaust cultivated in him a unique sensitivity to suffering. His 
compassion

[[Page E186]]

and willingness to stand up for what is right was a constant 
inspiration to me, both in our work in the House of Representatives and 
in our co-chairmanship of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. He was 
a hero in the eyes of so many, and his loss will be felt acutely by all 
of us.
  I extend my most sincere condolences to Tom's family, and I encourage 
my colleagues to take up the torch with which Tom illuminated the 
world's darkest corners.

                          ____________________