[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 1447]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 DEATH OF FORMER MAYOR JOHN V. LINDSAY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 6, 2001

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, throughout the neighborhoods of New York, 
millions mourn the death of former Mayor John Lindsay. He is still 
remembered as the great patron of community empowerment who provided 
the opportunity for the people on the bottom to enter the mainstream of 
New York politics as well as civil service and government employment.
  John Lindsay was a highly visible and articulate idealist and 
advocate for greater inclusion of minorities in the American dream. 
Although his direct impact on policy and practice never moved beyond 
New York City, he belongs in the category with Robert and John Kennedy 
and Franklin Roosevelt.
  Assuming great political risks, Lindsay was one of the few leaders in 
the nation who seriously adopted Lyndon Johnson's ``Maximum feasible 
participation of the poor'' policy. His administration made a Herculean 
effort to institutionalize power-sharing down to the local level. 
Instead of siphoning off dollars and resources from federal programs 
like the Community Action Program and the Model Cities initiative, 
Lindsay added city support and thus increased his own tax and budget 
burdens.
  With ignorance and incompetence, the people on the bottom sometimes 
betrayed their mayoral advocate; however, it was the lack of vision and 
the resistance within the ranks of the city's organized machine 
Democrats which blocked the realization of a new progressive base for 
the governing of New York City. Unfortunately, Lindsay never sought to 
build a movement or even his own partisan machine. But as a solo force, 
a lone Achilles of New York politics, he left a lasting legacy of new 
leadership within the poor and minority communities.
  After serving as a commissioner appointed by John Lindsay, I was 
elected to the New York State Senate in 1974. When I entered the 
legislature for the first time, I noted that every minority member of 
the legislature had previously been in some way supported by the 
Community Action Program or the Model Cities Program, both empowerment 
vehicles sponsored by John V. Lindsay.
  New York City mourns a great visionary leader and champion of the 
poor and powerless.

                    The Lindsay Trumpet Still Sounds

     For the Great John Lindsay
     The grave is not a period,
     But a colon:
     The good comes
     Flowing endlessly afterwards
     In offspring never seen,
     Achievements never footnoted.
     John Lindsay's trumpet sounds
     In the heads
     Of unknown urban soldiers;
     The posterity of the powerless
     Now hear the beat of new drums;
     The smothering of grassroots fervor
     Is now a gasping scheme;
     Heroes from the neighborhoods
     May still match the Lindsay dream.
     A Socrates for empowerment,
     He spawned Platos and Aristotles;
     Somewhere his Alexanders
     Are mobilizing new young armies.
     For the Great John Lindsay
     The grave is not a decaying period
     But a bright blossoming colon:
     The movement is not yet murdered,
     Its fervor only temporarily stolen;
     The rivers of righteous anger
     Again are fully swollen.
     Alive nailed to an unjust cross
     Big John bled away alone;
     With resurrections of his disciplines
     New Lindsay miracles of the City
     Can still be carved in stone.

     

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