[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 57 (Friday, March 26, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E312-E313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    RECOGNITION OF OUTSTANDING STAFF

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. SEAN CASTEN

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 26, 2021

  Mr. CASTEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute and express my 
gratitude to Anne Wick and Gail Kalinich.
  Anne and Gail were instrumental in convincing me to first run for 
office, helping to build a campaign team, and then served as my co-
district directors for the last 2 and one-half years. For that, I owe 
them my eternal personal gratitude.
  But I am ultimately a side story. Anne and Gail share my belief that 
the office is bigger and more important than the officeholder, and 
never shied away from reminding me of my

[[Page E313]]

relative insignificance. They did not seek public office, nor even to 
become district directors. But they were called to it. Anne is a 27-
year Navy Veteran. She's also a mother and a community leader. We met 
her when my own wife joined the local PTA, came home and said ``you've 
got to meet Anne. She gets stuff done.'' Gail is a retired law partner, 
volunteers as an organ courier and has been active for years with the 
local League of Women Voters.
  These are necessarily incomplete resumes, highlighted here only to 
illustrate that they did not need to become politically involved. But 
the times found them. They wanted a government that worked. Not just 
for them, but for all Americans. Not just in times of crisis, but 
before crises to avert them. And so, after the 2016 election, they 
heeded the words of our own speaker. They did not agonize, they 
organized.
  In their capacity as my co-district directors, their commitment to 
good government has never waned. First when they set up a district 
office. Then when they helped senior citizens get their social security 
checks. When they helped a World War II ``Atomic Veteran'' secure long-
overdue veterans benefits. When they organized events to draw attention 
to unsung women in our district who provide full women's health 
services in a church basement in the pre-Roe era. When they helped 
young high school students to learn about, and ultimately secure 
admission to our Nation's great service academies. In these examples, 
and so many more, public service came first.
  Anne and Gail are emblematic of the millions of under-appreciated, 
unsung women who got engaged and stepped up to protect our democracy in 
2017. They are a part of that crucial slice of the American electorate 
who have proven William Seward's observation that there has always been 
``just enough virtue in this nation to save it--sometimes none to 
spare, but still enough.'' They are, in short, two remarkable women who 
deserve more recognition than they seek, and certainly more than I can 
provide in these few words. To loosely paraphrase former Saturday Night 
Live actor Harry Shearer ``Give me a Wick and a Kalinich, and there is 
nothing I cannot do.''
  I am grateful to them both for their friendship, for their service to 
the people of Illinois' 6th Congressional district, for their 
patriotism. Our office, this body, and our nation will forever be in 
their debt.

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