[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16208]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



       CONGRESSMAN SCARBOROUGH ON THE RETIREMENT OF KARIN WALSER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOE SCARBOROUGH

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 2, 2001

  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a person 
who has made a great difference in the lives of many people. She has 
brought hope to the hopeless, love to the unloved and light to the 
lives of children who have known only darkness.
  For over a decade now, Karin Walser has been the driving force behind 
an organization called ``Horton's Kids.'' Karin's amazing energy level 
and commitment to those less fortunate than her have made Horton's Kids 
a shining example of how we all can reach out and greatly impact 
other's lives.
  Too often, we are brought to our knees in despair over the plight of 
those living in seemingly hopeless conditions. Too often we convince 
ourselves that there is nothing that one person can do to change the 
terrible course of a suffering child's life. But Karin has never been 
driven to despair or cried out in helplessness. Instead, her spirit is 
sparked by such overwhelming challenges.
  Bobby Kennedy once told a group of students in South Africa not to 
believe that an individual was helpless to cure the world's ills. In a 
speech he delivered two years to the day before his death, Kennedy 
said, ``Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the 
lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny 
ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different 
centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can 
sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.''
  The walls of oppression were torn down in South Africa two decades 
after Kennedy's death. But they still act as borders in neighborhoods 
less than five minutes from the Capitol.
  Karin Walser's life has been dedicated to ripping those walls down 
piece by piece. And with the help of her fiiends and other Capitol Hill 
staffers, I truly believe these walls will come tumbling down sooner 
now that Karin is leaving Capitol Hill to join Horton's Kids full-time.
  While we will miss Karin, just as we all miss Joe Moakley, I am sure 
she will never be far from us--or our telephones. Sure, she'll be 
calling for volunteers, or contributions, or anything else she can 
think of to help Horton's Kids, but we will all gladly answer her call 
because we know that together, Karin and Horton's Kids will continue to 
make a great difference in the lives of our area's most disadvantaged 
children.
  Thank you for all you have done and all you have meant to your 
hundreds of friends on Capitol Hill. You're not too bad for a left-wing 
radical.

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