[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 48 (Thursday, April 11, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H1913-H1914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO ANNE SMEDINGHOFF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, on Sunday, April 6, at 
11 a.m., America lost five of our best and brightest in Afghanistan 
when the convoy they were traveling in, along with an Afghan doctor, 
was attacked by a suicide bomber. One of them, 25-

[[Page H1914]]

year-old Anne T. Smedinghoff, who grew up in River Forest, Illinois, in 
the Seventh Congressional District where her family still lives, became 
the first U.S. State Department officer to die in Afghanistan since the 
1970s. She had less than 4 months left to serve in Afghanistan.
  Secretary of State Kerry said in Istanbul, where he is on a 
diplomatic trip:

       A brave American was determined to brighten the light of 
     learning through books written in the native tongue of the 
     students that she had never met, but whom she felt compelled 
     to help, and she was met by cowardly terrorists determined to 
     bring darkness and death to total strangers.

  Anne was killed while delivering donated textbooks to children at a 
new school. For Anne, who could have remained relatively safe in the 
embassy, delivering these books was essential to her mission, just as 
appearing on one of the most watched Afghan television shows to explain 
to the Afghan people the similarities between Eid, a Muslim holiday 
that celebrates giving and sharing, and Thanksgiving. Both give thanks 
for life's blessings, and Anne Smedinghoff discussed how she and her 
family celebrated back at home.
  Anne recently worked on a campaign to end gender violence by 
producing and distributing videos to the press across the country and 
was rewarded when she and her colleagues saw photographs of Afghan men 
in markets wearing purple ribbons, a symbol of the campaign.
  Her parents, Tom and Mary Beth Smedinghoff, said the foreign service 
was a calling, and Afghanistan was her second deployment, an assignment 
for which she had volunteered after a tour in Caracas, Venezuela. She 
died her parents said, doing a job she thought must be done. They said:

       She particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly 
     with the Afghan people, and was always looking for 
     opportunities to reach out and help make a difference in the 
     lives of those living in a country ravaged by war. We are 
     consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved and that 
     she was serving her country by helping to make a positive 
     difference in the world.

  Before she joined the State Department, Anne served on the board of 
directors for the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults' 4K for Cancer 
program, spending a summer cycling across the United States to raise 
money and awareness. She was full of life and hope. She rode her 
bicycle from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. She was once photographed 
with a boa constrictor around her neck in South America.

                              {time}  1010

  The residents of the Seventh Congressional District join me in 
honoring her life and work. Her bravery, her focus on using public 
diplomacy for positive change, her vision of the human potential, 
wherever it might be, sets a standard that it behooves all of us to try 
and emulate.
  Today a flag is being flown across the United States Capitol in her 
honor in recognition of her service to our country. My thoughts and 
prayers are with her parents, brothers, sisters, and friends during 
these difficult days. She is indeed a hero.

                          ____________________