[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 13, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E683-E687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    A SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING TO GOD FOR THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE 
HONORABLE JAMES C. WRIGHT, JR., 12TH DISTRICT OF TEXAS, SPEAKER OF THE 
                     U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN A. BOEHNER

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 13, 2015

  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, the Honorable James Claude Wright, former 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, died on May 6, 2015. On that 
day, I issued the following statement:

       The whole House mourns the passing of Speaker Jim Wright of 
     the state of Texas. We remember Speaker Wright today for his 
     lifelong commitment to public service, from flying combat 
     missions over the South Pacific to fighting for Fort Worth on 
     the House floor. Speaker Wright understood as well as anyone 
     this institution's closeness to the people, calling the House 
     `the raw essence of the nation.' It is in this spirit that we 
     send our deepest condolences to his family and community.
  The House took several steps to honor the former Speaker. The 
Speaker's chair on the rostrum was draped in black--the same mark of 
respect first made upon the death of Michael Kerr of Indiana, Speaker 
of the House in the 44th Congress and most recently for Thomas Foley. 
The Speaker's gavel rested on the rostrum during this period. Outside 
the House Chamber, Speaker Wright's official portrait in the Speaker's 
lobby was draped in black. A book of condolences was made available for 
the remembrances of friends and colleagues. On May 12, 2015, the House 
adopted House Resolution 245, expressing the condolences of the House 
upon his death, and the House adjourned on that day as a further mark 
of respect to his memory. A funeral was held on May 11, 2015, at First 
United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. The following is a 
transcript of those proceedings:

   A Service of Thanksgiving to God for the Life and Legacy of James 
           Claude Wright, Jr., December 22, 1922-May 6, 2015

       Prelude--(Ms. Peggy Graff, organist)
       Processional--``Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee''
       Call to worship
       (The Reverend Dr. Tim Bruster, First United Methodist 
     Church, Fort Worth, Texas)
       Reverend Bruster: Please be seated.
       Hear these words of Jesus: I am the resurrection and the 
     life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will 
     live, and everybody who lives and believes in me will never 
     die.
       Christ said: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
     end. Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last and the 
     living one. I was dead, and now I am alive, forever and ever.
       Friends, we have gathered here to praise God and to draw 
     comfort from our faith and to give thanks as we celebrate the 
     life of Jim Wright.
       We come together in grief, of course, acknowledging our 
     human loss. But we also come together in gratitude, 
     acknowledging and giving thanks for his life and his legacy 
     and for everything in his life that was a reflection of the 
     love and the grace of God.
       May God grant us grace in this time that in pain we may 
     find comfort, in sorrow we may find joy, and in death, 
     resurrection.
        Let's pray.
       Our gracious and loving God, we bow in awe of Your 
     greatness and Your love. You have spoken words of life to us 
     in so many ways. You've given form and beauty to our world, 
     and all of creation sings Your praise.
       You have given us one another to love and receive love, a 
     reflection of Your gracious love for us. And You have spoken 
     to us in the words of Scripture and in Jesus, the Word made 
     flesh, the Author of life.
       As You speak to us now, in this service of worship, help us 
     once again to hear Your words of life as we celebrate the 
     life and legacy of Your servant, Jim.
       In Jesus' name.
       Amen.
       I invite you now to turn in your worship guide to the words 
     of the 23rd Psalm as we say them together:
       ``The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
       ``He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me 
     beside the still waters.
       ``He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of 
     righteousness for His name's sake.
       ``Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
     death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and 
     Thy staff they comfort me.
       ``Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine 
     enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth 
     over.
       ``Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of 
     my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
       The words of Psalm 46:
       ``God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in 
     trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the Earth should 
     change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 
     though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble 
     with its tumult.
       ``There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, 
     the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of 
     the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the 
     morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms 
     totter; He utters His voice, the Earth melts. The Lord of 
     hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
       ``Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations 
     He has brought on the Earth. He makes wars cease to the end 
     of the Earth; He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; He 
     burns the shields with fire. `Be still, and know that I am 
     God! I am exalted among the nations; I am exalted in the 
     Earth.' The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our 
     refuge.''
       The words of the prophet Micah:
       `` `With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself 
     before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt 
     offerings, with calves a year old. Will the Lord be pleased 
     with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? 
     Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of 
     my body for the sin of my soul?'
       ``He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does 
     the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love 
     kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?''
       God speaks to us in the reading of Scripture.
       Solo--``Let There Be Peace on Earth'' performed by Mr. 
     Christopher Auchter.
       (The Honorable Martin Frost, United States House of 
     Representatives, 24th District of Texas, 1979-2005)
       Mr. Frost: Well, in the words of President John F. Kennedy 
     about Jim Wright:
       No city in America was better represented in Congress than 
     Fort Worth.
       I'm here today to speak on behalf of the scores of people--
     many of whom, Texans--that Jim Wright helped along the way 
     with their careers. He was our mentor, our colleague, and our 
     friend. And we were better public servants because of Jim 
     Wright, and many of those Members, past and present, Democrat 
     and Republican, are here with us today to honor Jim.
       In a minute, I'm going to speak about what Jim did for my 
     career, but it really speaks volumes for what he did for a 
     lot of others, too.
        Jim Wright was an extraordinary leader both for the people 
     of Fort Worth and for our Nation. He always remembered the 
     people who sent him to Washington and worked tirelessly to 
     make our country even better every day he was in office. Few 
     Congressmen in recent times have had a greater impact than 
     our friend Jim Wright.
       I met Jim Wright 57 years ago, in 1958, when he was a young 
     Congressman beginning his second term and I was a 16-year-
     old. Jim was the guest speaker at the Temple Beth-El youth 
     group in the basement of the old synagogue building on West 
     Broadway, near downtown. I had never met a national 
     politician before, and he made a deep impression on me that 
     day. I remember to this day some of what he said, and more of 
     that a little bit later.
       Seven years later, in 1965, I showed up in Washington as a 
     young reporter covering Congress for a magazine, and the 
     first thing I did was to go see my hometown Congressman, Jim 
     Wright. Jim and his chief of staff, Marshall Lynam, were very 
     helpful to this young reporter, suggesting who I should get 
     to know on congressional committee staffs. Three years later, 
     in the summer of 1968, Jim helped me get a job on Hubert 
     Humphrey's national Presidential campaign staff while I was a 
     student at Georgetown Law School.
       The last two people I saw before I headed back to Texas 
     following graduation in 1970 were Jim and Marshall. I told 
     them that I hoped to come back to D.C. some day as a 
     Congressman--in a neighboring district. I had no intention of 
     ever running against Jim Wright.
       Fast forward to 1976 when I was north Texas coordinator of 
     the Carter-Mondale Presidential campaign. The Carter campaign 
     wanted to come to Texas the weekend before the general 
     election when carrying Texas was still in doubt. They wanted 
     to only stop in Dallas. As a Fort Worth boy, I told them they 
     also had to come to Cowtown and that I knew that local 
     Congressman Jim Wright would put on one hell of a show for 
     them, and that's exactly what Jim did. He filled the downtown 
     convention center with more than 10,000 people early in the 
     afternoon that

[[Page E684]]

     Sunday. It made great television, and Carter became the last 
     Democratic Presidential candidate to carry Texas.
       Shortly after that election, Jim Wright became House 
     majority leader by one vote in a hotly contested secret 
     ballot election. He certainly knew how to count. Two years 
     later, I was elected to Congress from the 24th District, 
     which, in fact, adjoined the 12th District that Jim 
     represented. Jim went to Speaker Tip O'Neill and made sure I 
     was named to the powerful House Rules Committee, an 
     appointment that almost never went to a freshman Member.
       From that day on, Jim Wright and I became both colleagues 
     and friends. He was my mentor during the 11 years we served 
     together, and I learned an enormous amount just watching him 
     in action. And when I inherited the Black community in 
     southeast Fort Worth following the 1991 redistricting, I only 
     used one picture in my mailing: a photo of Jim Wright and me. 
     There wasn't anything else the voters in that part of my 
     district needed to know.
       They continued to be my base for the remainder of my 26 
     years in Congress, and just to make sure people in Fort Worth 
     knew that I had strong ties to Fort Worth, even though I now 
     lived in Dallas, he used to tell anyone who would listen that 
     I went to high school in his district in Fort Worth's 
     Paschal, and he went to high school in my district in Dallas' 
     Adamson.
       When Jim taught a course at TCU on Congress for 20 years 
     after leaving the Congress, I was proud to be a guest 
     lecturer for him every single year. The last time I saw Jim 
     was in the spring of 2014, when I was working on a book about 
     Congress. We visited for about an hour in his office at TCU. 
     His body was frail, but his mind was as sharp as ever.
       I learned how to be an effective Congressman by observing 
     Jim as a colleague and as a junior partner on a variety of 
     matters that helped Fort Worth. He never forgot the people 
     who sent him to Washington. He was a stalwart in his work on 
     behalf of defense workers at what is now Lockheed Martin, 
     which was General Dynamics, and Bell Helicopter in Fort 
     Worth.
       He played a significant role in the decision by American 
     Airlines to move its corporate headquarters from New York to 
     the Metroplex, and he was a strong supporter of DFW airport, 
     the jobs magnet for this part of the State.
       We worked together--and by the way, he did the heavy 
     lifting--to convince the railroad to make its right-of-way 
     available for the Trinity River Express connecting Fort Worth 
     and Dallas. No request from anyone in Tarrant County was too 
     small to win Jim's help.
       Also, Jim's role in promoting the careers of promising 
     African Americans from Fort Worth was of great significance. 
     He brought Lorraine Miller, a young woman from the southeast 
     side of Fort Worth, to Washington to work on his staff. Years 
     later, she became the first African American to serve as 
     Clerk of the U.S. House and recently served as interim 
     national president of the NAACP. And just a few years ago, 
     Jim played a key role in the election of Mark Veasey, who 
     became the first Black Congressman from Fort Worth.
       One of Jim's greatest strengths was molding a disparate 
     group of Democrats into an effective majority when he became 
     Speaker. During his first year as Speaker in 1987--and Tony 
     and Steny, you will remember this--Congress passed all 13 
     appropriation bills before the start of the new fiscal year 
     on October 1, something that is almost never done today.
       I remember his response to a question from the audience at 
     that speech at Temple Beth-El in 1958. He was asked what a 
     Congressman does when he feels one way about an issue and his 
     district feels the other way. He responded that the job of a 
     Congressman was to reflect the views of his district as often 
     as he could. He then added that he reserved a small 
     percentage of votes, perhaps 10 percent, to vote against the 
     majority of his district if he felt something was vital in 
     the national interest. And he then added that it was his 
     responsibility to go back to his constituents to explain his 
     vote and hopefully convince them that he was right and they 
     were wrong. He added that if a Congressman couldn't 
     successfully do that, he wouldn't be reelected, and that was 
     as it should be.
       He did a very good job following his own advice. I did the 
     same and found that he was exactly correct.
       Fort Worth is a great city today because of Jim Wright. We 
     all owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. We will never see 
     his like again.
       (The Honorable Bill Alexander, United States House of 
     Representatives, First District of Arkansas, 1969-1993)
       Mr. Alexander: Jimmy and Ginger, Kerry, Lisa, and all the 
     Wright family, I feel that we are kin.
       And to all of his friends who are here today, I join you in 
     tribute to one of my dearest friends.
       I kept up with Jim through the years, even after he left 
     Washington and returned to Texas; and following his recovery 
     from surgery, I gave him a call one day, and he invited me to 
     come to Fort Worth. So my son and I--Alex, who is here--with 
     his sister Ashley, who came to TCU at a later time, boarded 
     our plane and came to DFW. At those days, Jim was driving, 
     and so he met us at the airport. I'd never been outside of 
     DFW before, so I didn't know what to expect.
       And so as we left the terminal, I noticed all of the 
     concrete infrastructure that supports the airport: the 
     entrance ramps, the exit ramps, the overhead bridges, the 
     long ride to the interstate. I never saw so much concrete in 
     all my life. So I turned to Jim, who at one time, as most of 
     you know, was chairman of the Public Works Committee, and I 
     said to him, ``Jim, how much money did the Public Works 
     Committee spend on this airport?'' And he looked at me and 
     rolled his brow and lifted his big bushy eyebrows and he said 
     to me, ``Not a penny more than the law allowed.''
       Jim was probably one of the most successful chairmen in 
     Congress; and with that success, people encouraged him, and 
     he ran for majority leader. As all of you probably followed 
     in the news, it was a very contentious race, and on the day 
     of the vote, I was appointed to be a judge. And so after the 
     votes were cast, I adjourned with the other members of 
     the election group and counted the votes. We counted them 
     twice, and Jim won by one vote.
       I got up from the chair in the Speaker's lounge--the 
     Speaker's lobby, we call it--rushed through the door to the 
     House Chamber, and Jim was sitting on the second row on the 
     Democratic side in the Hall of the House. I rushed up to him 
     and I said, ``Jim, you won.'' He was surprised because no one 
     knew the outcome of that election. He looked at me, and he 
     said, ``Are you sure?'' And I said, ``Jim, I counted the 
     votes, and if you hadn't won, Phil Burton said he would send 
     me to Alaska.''
       Following in the footsteps of Sam Rayburn and Lyndon 
     Johnson, Jim asserted leadership in Congress at a time of 
     confusion in the Senate and the White House, demonstrating a 
     unique ability to command our Nation's political resources to 
     get things done. And this went across the aisle to the 
     Republicans and even down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White 
     House, which is a million miles away if you serve in Congress 
     sometimes.
       Jim Wright had fought in World War II to defend the values 
     of the Greatest Generation, as Tom Brokaw describes this 
     generation, a generation of men and women united in common 
     purposes of family, country, duty, honor, courage, and 
     service. During World War II, he flew many combat missions. I 
     haven't really been able to discern exactly how many yet 
     because there's such a debate over it. Maybe somebody will 
     tell me before I go back to Washington. And he served as a 
     bombardier and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for 
     his bravery.
       Jim believed that government should serve the people as 
     well as the economic interests, which also must be 
     represented, and provide Federal assistance to communities 
     and States like Arkansas, where I'm from. It's in need of 
     capital development in order to provide infrastructure to try 
     to attract industry and jobs for our people. That was, in his 
     view, providing building blocks for the foundation of the 
     economic development that benefits all of us. All you've got 
     to do is look around in Texas a little bit to find out if it 
     works.
       The criticism of Speaker Wright, which is in the news, 
     instead of all of the accomplishments that we know he 
     achieved, his strong leadership came from a changing 
     Congress. Some of my former colleagues from Congress are here 
     today, and they know what I'm talking about.
       Beginning with the 1968 election, which was my first 
     election to Congress, the ideals and values of the Greatest 
     Generation began to evolve. A Congress run by Southern 
     Democrats, who chaired mostly the important committees in the 
     Congress, was gradually replaced by a younger generation of 
     Congressmen and Senators, many of them in the other party. 
     And when he left Congress, even his political enemies often 
     remarked that, had he stayed in Congress, he would have been 
     the greatest Speaker since Henry Clay.
       His time as Speaker laid down historic markers. He was the 
     last great figure in Congress to keep alive the idea of 
     development--that came from the New Deal--that would help our 
     economy.
       After him came what we call Reaganomics and the tidal wave 
     of polarization of our two political parties and the 
     continuing mindless cannibalism which we can still see 
     evident today between the parties and even in the parties in 
     Congress.
       Criticism of Speaker Wright's forceful leadership came from 
     Republicans and Democrats alike; although, at the time he 
     stepped down, the principal antagonists came from within our 
     own party. I was there, and I know who they are.
       What followed was a profound change in the power structure 
     in Congress, shifting away from the power and authority 
     lodged in a handful of key Southern committee chairmen to a 
     dispersion of power among proliferating committees and 
     subcommittees, encouraging intensifying rivalries and even 
     political fratricides throughout the House. His departure 
     marked the end of an era when Southern Democrats dominated in 
     both the House and the Senate, along with a gradual evolution 
     of the Congress toward social issues.
       It marked the transition from Southern leadership of 
     Congress to a growing concentration of power of the 
     Democratic Party in our Nation's biggest cities, many of them 
     in the North, opening a widening rift between our Nation's 
     small towns and rural areas and the political interests of 
     the inner cities. The way was opened for lobbyists to shift 
     attention away from schools and roads and bridges and water 
     systems that helped

[[Page E685]]

     our people to special interests of Wall Street banks and a 
     commercial agenda.
       A fluent speaker of Spanish, he took the initiative to 
     intervene in the political crisis in Nicaragua and crafted 
     peace talks that laid the foundation for elections. When I 
     assisted him in this so-called ``junket,'' in his endeavor I 
     found that what we tried to do generated much consternation 
     among President Reagan's White House staff. Later, another 
     great Texan, James Baker, observed that what Jim Wright did 
     with his intervention in Nicaragua turned the corner for that 
     nation and helped the U.S. and Nicaragua to come to better 
     terms with one another.
       Jim Wright was not only a master of the political structure 
     and the rules in Congress, he also was an author, a 
     professor. He lectured at Texas Christian University with 
     eagerness to inspire and guide our Nation's youth.
       In the tradition of Sam Houston and Sam Rayburn, Jim Wright 
     was a giant. I was his chief deputy whip in the Congress, the 
     worst job in the House of Representatives, but it was worth 
     all the knocks and the cuts and the bruises and the criticism 
     that I endured to fight for the values established by the 
     Greatest Generation until the ideals were changed by a new 
     breed of voter who believes that Washington is not a 
     solution, rather, Washington is the problem.
       He was my dear friend, and I stood with him in every fight 
     for the values that won World War II and provided the 
     building blocks and foundation for the greatest economy on 
     Earth.
       God bless Jim Wright.
       (Mr. Paul Driskell, Special Assistant, Majority Leader 
     James C. Wright, Jr.)
       Mr. Driskell: Martin, Bill, Betsy, Mike, Kenneth, Mr. 
     Leader, Steny Hoyer--the one man in this sanctuary today who 
     knows the full weight and measure and the responsibilities of 
     the job this prince of peace executed so beautifully for so 
     many years. Dear Steny, thank you for your presence today. 
     How very, very special, how honored he would be, how much he 
     would love this congregation today. This is a delegation of 
     community builders.
       Mr. Wright loved Sam Rayburn dearly, and he often quoted 
     him; and of course many people wondered why Mr. Rayburn went 
     back to Bonham, Texas, after announcing he was going to leave 
     the House, and his answer was simple:
       Bonham, Texas: the people there know when you're sick, and 
     they care when you die.
       You have validated Jim Wright's recitation of that quote, 
     all of you today, by honoring him in coming here. You knew he 
     was ill, and you cared that he died. Oh, how he would 
     celebrate you. Oh, how he must be enjoying this. He loved 
     people of accomplishment. He loved people who contributed and 
     built.
       Mr. Rayburn used to always say: A jackass can kick a barn 
     down; it takes a carpenter to build one. It's no accident 
     that our Lord was fathered by a carpenter--and parented by a 
     carpenter in his early years.
       I'd like to give you a sense of Speaker Wright, Jim Wright, 
     and my friend. It may be very, very unique. And as I have 
     thought about him so much and as I visited him in those final 
     days, things came to me that I would have never imagined. He 
     was, in fact, the first gifted multitasker. Now, if you know 
     anything about Jim, he despised anything to do with 
     technology, but he was a multitasker. Let me explain what I 
     mean.
       February 7, 1985, 11 o'clock in the morning, after about 30 
     days, some of the people in this room--Tony, John--had been 
     working diligently because Mr. O'Neill had told us privately 
     he was going to retire. So we were trying to collect the 
     requisite number of votes for him to become Speaker of the 
     House 2 years out.
       February 7, 1985, 11 o'clock in the morning, a national 
     press conference was held in the office that Steny Hoyer's 
     offices are in today. He met the national press. He was 
     surrounded by his colleagues. He was surrounded by people who 
     loved him and wished well for him, and he made the 
     announcement that he had achieved the requisite number of 
     votes to capture his dream, to be Speaker of the House. He 
     put a peace, if you will, in a body that's not given to peace 
     easily about the next years and how things would follow.
       Fifteen minutes later, he grabbed me by the arm and 
     escorted me and my wife, Donna, up the back stairs with 31 
     other people to the House Chaplain's office where Chaplain 
     Ford married us at Henry Clay's desk, the great compromiser. 
     And then, he walked back downstairs with us. We had a 
     reception in the office. He pulled Donna and me aside and he 
     said, ``I only have two things to tell you two: Paul, always 
     hold her hand, and never go to bed mad.''
       Mr. Speaker, sometimes you set the bar too high. I have 
     removed pillows from my bed so as not to elevate the 
     temptation for Donna to smother me.
       There are so many things privately that I loved about him 
     and that we shared. He had a passionate love for boxing. He 
     knew boxing. He knew boxing like Nat Fleischer, the famous 
     author who recorded almost everything of significance about 
     American heavyweight boxing. We went to a fight. We went to 
     Golden Gloves. We went to the Olympic trials. We went to tons 
     of professional fights. It was like going to that fight with 
     Nat Fleischer, and he would be sitting there and he would be 
     reciting to you the ring scores of the Firpo-Dempsey fight. 
     He knew--every--every hobby and interest he had, he wanted to 
     know everything there was to know about it. If you ever saw 
     the roses that he cultivated, you'd understand that in 
     spades. He was a gifted horticulturist. He was a great 
     teacher.
       Kay, you and I sat just about where Steny was sitting 2 
     years ago, 2\1/2\ years ago, and you told me how he taught 
     you and Ginger, Jenny and Lisa about God. In fact, he used a 
     wagon wheel and said that was the universe and God was, 
     indeed, the hub; and the spokes represented the people, and, 
     of course, the rim, where all the damage and impact takes 
     place, was the furthest from God. And he admonished you that 
     it was your job, it was your responsibility, it was a 
     testament of your faith to move closer down those spokes 
     because you would be closer to more people, and as you were 
     closer to more people, you'd be closer to God. What a gift.
       I've often wondered, and I think everyone in this sanctuary 
     today wonders, why God lets us see certain things at certain 
     times. It seems rather odd. Last week, just the day before 
     his passing and only a few days after my last visit with him, 
     there was a documentary on about George Foreman. I happened 
     to turn it on the other night. George Foreman, the famous 
     heavyweight, struck fear and terror in everyone's heart--
     undefeated, knocked poor Joe Frazier down eight times. And 
     the interviewer asked him a question. He said, ``Who was the 
     greatest champion of all time in your estimation?'' And 
     George Foreman didn't hesitate. He said, ``Muhammad Ali.'' 
     That stunned the interviewer.
       Muhammad Ali had defeated George Foreman in Zaire, Africa, 
     and usually when a boxer loses to another one, it was a lucky 
     punch or you're just a little better that night, not the 
     greatest champion that ever lived. He didn't hesitate. He 
     said, ``Muhammad Ali.''
       The interviewer said, ``Why? Why do you choose him?'' He 
     said, ``Well, if you saw the fight in the eighth round, he 
     hit me twice in the face.'' And if any of you remember or 
     happened to have seen it, George Foreman began to cartwheel. 
     He began to turn and fall to the floor. And as he was 
     falling, Muhammad Ali, as all boxers are trained all their 
     life to do, cocked his arm to hit him with what is known as 
     the ``killing punch.''
       And George Foreman said, ``I looked up out of my left eye, 
     just partially conscious, knowing I was going to the floor, 
     and he never threw that punch. So for me, he's not the 
     greatest champion that ever lived for the punches he threw; 
     it's for what he didn't do. It's the punch he didn't throw.''
       And the very people who besmirched and impugned this prince 
     of peace at the end of his public career, when they fell on 
     hard times and they fell by the sword they had so recklessly 
     wielded, not once in private--and certainly never in public--
     did Jim Wright throw that punch. He could not retaliate. He 
     didn't just talk Christian forgiveness; he lived it. His 
     higher calling at that time was to find a way to inspire 
     students at TCU to engage in public service and to think 
     about the possibilities of what they could build, like the 
     beautiful people in this room today. He didn't throw that 
     punch.
       I was 15 years old, standing in front of a black-and-white 
     TV, and I watched Robert Kennedy say, ``When he shall die, 
     take him and cut him out into stars, and he shall make the 
     face of Heaven so fine that all the world will be in love 
     with night and pay no worship to the garish Sun.''
       I didn't know at 15 just what that meant. At 65, I marvel 
     how Bobby Kennedy could have mustered the strength and the 
     insight to say that about the brother he loved, in some ways 
     his best friend, and, oh, by the way, in passing, the 
     President of the United States.
       I understood because of this church and because of my 
     association with him that all of us have a spark of divinity. 
     We are all made in God's image, and that spark is there, but 
     what I didn't understand was that there are a special few who 
     possess a flame, a torch. It's bigger. It's more committed. 
     It's something we can appreciate. It's not 
     necessarily something we readily understand.
       It's not by accident that there's an eternal flame that 
     burns at John Kennedy's grave and why, for all the 
     accomplishments: the Peace Corps, the space program, all of 
     those things--no. That's part of it. That's why millions go 
     there to pay respects. The part of it is that during the most 
     sensitive time in our Nation's history, when we were the 
     closest to engaging in a nuclear holocaust, when every 
     adviser that that President had was admonishing him to take 
     advantage of the tactical and strategic position we occupied 
     for those precious few days and strike Cuba with nuclear 
     weapons, he didn't throw that punch. And we're all breathing 
     good air and loving our friends and conducting our lives 
     because of that divine torch.
       The thing I think I will miss most is a private passion 
     that Jim had and I shared. He loved movies. The singular 
     thing that we really appreciated together was we happened to 
     think that Robert Duvall was the greatest American actor 
     that's ever lived.
       Jim's favorite movie was ``Tender Mercies,'' and my 
     favorite film was ``The Natural.'' And in ``The Natural,'' 
     there's a scene--of course, all the ladies in here know 
     Robert Redford was the natural. He was Roy Hobbs, the gifted 
     baseball player. Robert Duvall was the cynical sportswriter; 
     Wilford Brimley was the crusty old coach.
        And there's that beautiful soliloquy where the coach walks 
     in and he says--I mean, pardon me, Robert Duvall walks in and 
     says to the coach, ``Coach, who is this Roy Hobbs?'' And the 
     coach turns on his heels and says, ``I

[[Page E686]]

     don't know who Roy Hobbs is. I just know he's the best there 
     is and the best there ever will be.''
       Jim Wright, you are the natural.
       There probably has never been a man in American history who 
     I can recall that so eloquently used the English language. He 
     helped those of us who only have sparks appreciate the flame 
     with his application of our language.
       And it seems a shame that I can't find words in my language 
     to encompass all that he was, and yet he will always be. Only 
     in Spanish: Vaya con Dios--go and be with God. Light of our 
     land. Vaya con Dios, friend of my life.
       Congregational Hymn--``This is My Song''
       Reverend Bruster: I invite you to hear now the words of the 
     Apostle Paul from the first letter to the Corinthians, 
     Chapter 13:
       ``If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but 
     do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And 
     if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and 
     all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove 
     mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away 
     all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may 
     boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
       ``Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or 
     boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own 
     way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in 
     wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth. Love bears all things, 
     believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
       ``Love never ends.''
       And Paul ends that chapter with the words:
       ``And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the 
     greatest of these is love.''
       The words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, a sermon on the 
     plain:
       ``But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good 
     to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for 
     those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, 
     offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your 
     coat, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who 
     begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not 
     ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to 
     you.
       ``If you love those who love you, what credit is that to 
     you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do 
     good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? 
     For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom 
     you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners 
     lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your 
     enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your 
     reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most 
     High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be 
     merciful, just as your Father is merciful.''
       Jim had a wonderful, quick wit as we all know. His 
     responses to glowing introductions illustrated that point. 
     Two years ago, when Cissy Day was introducing him to a Sunday 
     school class where he was about to speak, she told a story at 
     the end of her introduction of something that he had done 
     that was very kind and a note that he had written to her that 
     was a kind note that she treasured. When he stood up then to 
     speak, he looked over at her and he said, ``Uh, I had 
     forgotten how nice I used to be.''
       After a glowing introduction at another event, he said, 
     ``An event of this dimension is just terribly hard on one's 
     humility. Try as I might to look and sound humble, I just 
     can't quite pull it off.''
       And then he quoted Jesus: ``Let your light so shine before 
     others that they may see your good works and give glory to 
     your Father who is in Heaven.''
       And he said, ``You know, when I read that, I realized he 
     doesn't say, `Let your light so shine so that others may see 
     your good works and think what a great guy.' '' And then he 
     went on to say, ``The purpose of good works is not to get 
     bragged on.'' But then he said this: ``But if I'm honest with 
     you, I guess I'm going to have to let you in on a little 
     personal confession. Being bragged on, I like it,'' he said. 
     ``I eat it up.''
       And on another occasion, he said after an introduction, 
     ``Undeserved as though an introduction like that is, indeed I 
     want you to know that I liked it. I liked every word of it.''
       And then he said, ``There are two kinds of people who 
     appreciate flattery: men and women.''
       So since Jim made that confession, I guess it's okay that 
     we tell of his good works and that we laud him. And I hope 
     that he would appreciate that we do it not just pointing at 
     Jim, but pointing at the source of all of that for Jim; 
     pointing not just to Jim, but beyond to the legacy that he 
     received from other people, and beyond Jim to his faith and 
     his commitment to Christ that guided his life.
       He leaves a great legacy, and our words hold up those great 
     attributes not to point just to Jim, but to also point to his 
     faith and commitment and the One in whom he had faith and the 
     One that he sought to follow, and also to see Jim's life as 
     an example to all of us.
       I want to think about that with you for just a few minutes. 
     Jim was an encourager. As he sought to be a follower of 
     Christ and as he put that into practice in his life, he knew 
     the importance of encouragement. He was an encourager.
       In the book of Acts, we meet a man named Joseph. He was 
     from Cyprus. But we don't know him as Joseph. We almost never 
     hear that. After his first introduction in the book of Acts, 
     he's known by his nickname, and his nickname was Barnabas. 
     The disciples, the apostles, nicknamed him Barnabas because 
     Barnabas means ``son of encouragement.'' He was an 
     encourager. Imagine having your nickname mean one who 
     encourages. We could call Jim that, a Barnabas, because he 
     was. He was a son of encouragement.
       How many of us in this room, I wonder, have, in our 
     possession, notes of encouragement from Jim Wright? I would 
     guess a lot of us. Those notes arrived at a time of 
     discouragement, perhaps, or a time of grief or a time of 
     uncertainty or a time of failing confidence or a time of 
     waning courage. A note of encouragement arrived at just the 
     right time.
       What is the value of those notes? I was thinking about that 
     and thought, you know, the law of supply and demand would say 
     those notes are not worth anything at all; there are too many 
     of them on the market. But the value of those notes goes far 
     beyond that. They're valued in a different way. One person 
     told me that she had such a note in a plastic sleeve and 
     carried it with her for a long time.
       What an encourager, not just the notes, but the right words 
     spoken at the right moment.
       We give thanks to God for Jim because Jim was a peacemaker, 
     and we have heard our speakers talk eloquently about his 
     peacemaking efforts. He often quoted Jesus, again, from the 
     Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they 
     will be called children of God.
       And he was a peacemaker. He was a man of strong convictions 
     but yet able to see and to respect the perspective of another 
     and to bring people together in ways that make for peace. He 
     was, as a peacemaker, a child of God, as Jesus said.
       Now, peacemaking extended beyond what you may know about to 
     his role as a parent. His daughters, Ginger and Kay, were 
     fighting one time as sisters do, and Jim intervened as the 
     peacemaker. And he made each one of them go to her room and 
     write an essay, entitled, ``Why I Love My Sister.'' And he 
     held on to those essays for 30 years, and then he gave them 
     back to the girls so they could read them.
       Kay wrote this: ``Well, I suppose she's nice. Her friends 
     seem to like her.''
       Ginger wrote: ``Well, she seems to like my clothes because 
     she wears them all the time.''
       He closed the door after reading those essays and guffawed, 
     as you can imagine.
       Ginger's comment, when she was telling me about it, was, 
     ``And he thought the Sandinistas and Contras were tough.''
       Jim was a servant leader; we know that. His accomplishments 
     were many. In serving his beloved Weatherford and his beloved 
     Fort Worth and his beloved Nation, he was a servant leader. 
     Whether that was as a father, a grandfather, a great-
     grandfather, a soldier, a State legislator, a Scout master, a 
     golden gloves boxing coach, a Sunday school teacher, a church 
     leader, a mayor, a Congressman, a majority leader, a Speaker 
     of the House, a teacher, or a friend, he was a servant 
     leader--again, following the words of Jesus that we are to be 
     servants of one another if we're ever to be called great.
       His life was committed to compassion and justice. I read 
     those wonderful words from Micah a moment ago. Micah was 
     writing to a nation, to his people, who had lost their 
     way, who had lost sight of that which was most important. 
     They had the right words. They had the right rituals. But 
     Micah wrote that that was all empty and reminded them of 
     what was most important that they should have known 
     already.
       He said, ``What has he told you, O mortal, but what is 
     good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do 
     justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your 
     God.''
       On so many occasions, I saw Jim share his faith; I saw Jim 
     share his values, heard him speak in this pulpit. A number of 
     years ago--I think it was in 2006--my wife, Susan, who was 
     working at William James Middle School as academic 
     coordinator, shared that with Jim, and he said, ``I used to 
     go to William James Middle School.'' And she invited him then 
     to come and speak to the students, and she had Jim Wright 
     Day, and he spent most of the day at the school. And he 
     talked with those students, and he had a reception in the 
     library where he shared with them.
       There was a big assembly in the auditorium, and it's one of 
     those old classic schools with a big auditorium, a balcony in 
     the back, and it was packed with middle school kids. And I 
     couldn't believe my eyes and my ears when he spoke to them. 
     You could hear a pin drop. He was a master.
       And he shared with those kids the story of the Good 
     Samaritan. I remember how he started into that. He said, 
     ``There are a lot of different beliefs.'' He said, ``There is 
     a man who lived a long time ago. His name was Jesus. He was a 
     very good man, and a lot of different people believed a lot 
     of different things about him. But he told some stories that 
     taught some important values, and everybody agrees on that,'' 
     he said.
       He told the story of the Good Samaritan. You know the 
     story. The man is beaten and robbed, lying on the side of the 
     road. Along come two people who pass by on the other side, 
     and then comes the Samaritan who is the outsider in the 
     story, and he's the one who helps the man. And I remember Jim 
     said to those kids, ``This illustrates really three 
     philosophies of life, the three ways of approaching life.''
       He said, ``There is the philosophy of the thieves, and 
     their philosophy is what's yours

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     is mine, and I'll take it.'' He said, ``That philosophy still 
     lives in attacking others and cheating people and greedy 
     business practices and being envious of others and whatever 
     belittles or injures or degrades another person. It's not 
     always physically violent,'' he said. He said, ``We rob 
     others by slander or gossip when we injure their 
     reputations.''
       And he said, ``The second philosophy is that of the two men 
     who saw the wounded man but offered no help.'' He said, 
     ``Their central operating principle is what is mine is all 
     mine, and I'll keep it for myself.'' He said, ``That's less 
     violent, but in its own way it's as selfish as the first.'' 
     He said, ``We can come up with all kinds of excuses to 
     justify not helping those injured along life's highway. We 
     deceive ourselves and ignore their suffering by saying that 
     they're not our responsibility.''
       Then he said, ``Then there's the Samaritan. This was Jesus' 
     model for humanity. He was a stranger and a child of another 
     religious heritage, but he extended himself freely to help 
     one in need. And his philosophy is what's mine is yours if 
     you need it, and I'll share it with you.''
       And then he said, ``Jesus told that story in answer to a 
     question. The question was, Who is my neighbor?'' And then he 
     told those kids, ``There are these three philosophies of 
     life, and there's only one that makes the world a better 
     place. There's only one that makes your relationships better, 
     and it's that of the Samaritan. And we each can choose how we 
     live.''
       Now, that illustrates so much how Jim lived and how he 
     wanted to pass on that legacy to those who came after him.
       Much has been spoken about his ability to forgive, and I 
     cannot but think, as we meditate on those words of Jesus, the 
     words of Paul about love, Jesus' words about forgiveness, and 
     I can't help but think of the quote that he often gave from 
     Abraham Lincoln.
       Someone once asked Lincoln if he believed in destroying his 
     enemies, and Lincoln replied, ``Of course, I would like to 
     destroy my enemies because I've never wanted enemies. The 
     only way I know satisfactorily to destroy an enemy is to 
     convert him to a friend.''
       The Fetzer Institute has done a lot of research on 
     forgiveness, and they define it in a way that I think is so 
     meaningful, and that is, forgiveness is the difficult, 
     intentional process of letting go of an old reality and 
     opening up one's self to a new one. And Jim lived that 
     difficult, intentional process of being able to let go of an 
     old reality and opening up and living a new one.
       One friend emailed me and said, ``He was the poster child 
     for amazing grace.''
       That's the legacy that we celebrate today, and there's so 
     much more that could be said. The challenge for all of us 
     today was how do we winnow it down. But you know what? You 
     carry those stories of Jim; you carry those memories; you 
     carry that legacy. Share it; share it with one another; and 
     do your best. Let us all do our best to live it--to live it.
       In the obituary that you were handed as you came in, there 
     is a favorite quote of his from Horace Greeley:
       ``Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take 
     wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow. Only one 
     thing endures--character.''
       Well done, Jim Wright, good and faithful servant. Let's 
     pray.
       Gracious God, we give You thanks for the hope that faith in 
     You gives. For all Your people who have laid hold on that 
     hope, especially we thank You for Your faithful servant Jim 
     Wright. We thank You for all Your goodness to him and for 
     everything in his life that was a reflection of Your love and 
     Your grace. We give You thanks for his faith, for his love 
     for and his commitment to You and to his family and to his 
     friends, to his Nation.
       We give You thanks for his kindness, his passion for 
     justice, his courage, and his strength of character. Loving 
     God, hold us and all who mourn in Your love, and comfort this 
     loving family and comfort us, his friends. Help us all to be 
     ever mindful of Your sustaining presence.
       We offer a prayer in the name of Jesus.
       Amen.
       In just a few moments, the family will process out, and 
     you're invited to Wesley Hall, which is across the garden in 
     that adjacent part of the building, for a reception with the 
     family. Please note the instructions that are on the back of 
     your bulletin, and I invite you to please remain seated, if 
     you will, until the ushers direct you.
       Ginger shared with me one of her favorite memories of 
     opening of the Presidential display, the new Presidential 
     display in the early 1990s, a room turned into a replica of 
     LBJ's office there in Austin. There was an antique pump organ 
     there signed by all the Members of Congress, and Jake Pickle 
     sat down at the organ and started playing a hymn. And the 
     congressional Members and former Members there started 
     singing the hymn, and it's the hymn that we're going to sing 
     in just a moment after Jim's great-grandchildren give us our 
     benediction.
       A benediction isn't really a prayer. It can be a prayer of 
     course, but traditionally, it is not. The word 
     ``benediction'' literally means ``a good word.'' The great-
     grandchildren, led by the oldest, Campbell, will give us 
     their good word.
       Will you come now.
       (Campbell Brown, Jim Wright's great-granddaughter, and Jim 
     Wright's great-grandchildren)
       Miss Brown: Hi, my name is Campbell Brown. Everyone on 
     stage with me is a great-grandchild of Jim Wright or, as we 
     like to call him, ``Great Pop.''
       None of us were born when he was in Congress, but we all 
     knew his love for this great country, especially Fort Worth. 
     We are told by many people that he often said, ``I want to 
     make the world a better place for my children, their 
     children, and their children's children.'' Well, that's us. 
     Next to me are the children of the grandchildren. We are the 
     next generation.
       We would like to ask you to honor our Great Pop for the 
     rest of the day by thinking about how you can make the world 
     a better place. As you walk out of the church and for the 
     rest of today, think about peace, not war; think about 
     abundance, not scarcity; think about love, not hate, and 
     hope, not despair.
       Please help us lift Great Pop to his next roll call by 
     singing the final hymn.
       Thank y'all for coming today.
       Congregational Hymn--``When the Roll is Called Up Yonder''
       Recessional--``For All the Saints''

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