[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 5 (Monday, January 9, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       COMMEMORATING NAT HENTOFF

  (Mr. ROTHFUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROTHFUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the late Nat 
Hentoff, a man who constantly defied expectations. He died this weekend 
on January 7.
  Nat defined himself as a ``Jewish, atheist, civil libertarian, left-
wing pro-lifer.'' A writer for the Village Voice and brilliant jazz 
critic, he joined forces with constituents across political, 
ideological, and religious spectrums if he believed he shared common 
ground with them.
  He was not afraid to alienate his fellow liberals by agreeing with 
pro-life heretics, as he once jokingly called them, nor was he afraid 
to speak to crowds of Christian pro-lifers, even when many of them said 
being atheist and pro-life were mutually exclusive.
  Rather than worry about their judgment, he cared too much about 
fairness and equality to remain silent. He was more concerned with 
expressing what he believed to be true: that the unborn have great 
potential and that, with their own unique genetic code, they are human 
persons with as much a right to life as any of us.
  I commend Nat Hentoff for his courage and intellectual integrity. It 
is not easy in our culture to swim upstream. It takes a certain spirit, 
grit, and determination. These are characteristics Nat Hentoff 
possessed in abundance.
  May he rest in peace and may his family be consoled.

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