[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 26889-26890]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      TRIBUTE TO JOHN T. O'CONNOR

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to take this 
opportunity to remember my friend John T. O'Connor, who passed away on 
November 30, 2001. A lifelong fighter for social justice, John died 
suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 46 while playing basketball, a 
sport he loved, at the YMCA near his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  John O'Connor's zest for life and boundless energy were apparent from 
the moment you first met him, and those extraordinary qualities 
continued to amaze even those who knew him best and longest. His 
undeniable charisma helped win an enormous circle of friends. But his 
life was always about causes larger than himself. He credited his 
passion for social justice to the example of his parents, Katherine and 
George, to the Catholic faith and training he felt so deeply, and to 
his many inspiring teachers, especially at Clark University in 
Worcester, his alma mater.
  John's public journey began when he was still in college in the late 
1970s, organizing fellow students to volunteer at the Mustard Seed, a 
Catholic worker collective in Worcester dedicated to feeding the poor 
and homeless. There he perfected his trademark eggplant parmesan. After 
graduation, John went to work for Worcester Fair Share, knocking on the 
doors of the three deckers of Grafton Hill in a successful campaign to 
end arson-for-profit in that neighborhood, a pattern he identified 
through disciplined research. The fire station built in response to 
that campaign remains a testament to John's first venture into 
grassroots organizing.
  The combination of community organizing and strategic research led 
him to understand that the environment was also an urban issue, 
affecting the quality of life in low income neighborhoods as surely as 
in the great outdoors. He began this new work by organizing citizens to 
resist an ill-conceived landfill proposal and to negotiate with local 
factory owners to reduce emissions.
  Soon, John moved on to a large national campaign, setting out to rid 
the country of environmental threats such as the asbestos contamination 
he lived next to in his hometown of Stratford, CT. At a time when 
environmental activism was out of fashion among some in Washington, he 
began traveling across the nation, speaking out against polluters, and 
convincing more than a million Americans to sign petitions to support 
toxic waste cleanup. He built his organization, The National Toxics 
Campaign, into a grassroots campaign to mobilize people from across the 
country, providing timely and passionate support for the appropriation 
of $8 billion for the Federal Superfund law in the mid-eighties, and 
helping to realize the promise of that historic legislation.
  First and foremost, John was a community organizer. He took on a 
remarkable range of issues, and he always did so with great dedication 
and effectiveness. He worked with scientists to document health 
concerns for veterans of the Gulf War. He made the case for 
environmental cleanup programs from Boston Harbor to the Rio Grande. He 
argued against the misuse of pesticides and other chemicals in 
agriculture. He was a strong believer in the importance of organized 
labor, and he fought alongside union members for strict protections for 
health and safety in the workplace. He co-authored a number of books on 
organizing and the environment, and a book on agricultural democracy 
was near completion. He was also interested for many years in 
responsible energy policy, and he led an effort in 1998 to repeal a 
Massachusetts electricity deregulation law, which he felt was unfair to 
consumers and the environment.
  For John O'Connor, environmental-
ism was always as much about people as about our physical surroundings. 
It was logical that he would turn in recent years to the cause of 
assuring the best possible health care for every citizen. In 1999, he 
led efforts that obtained more than one hundred thousand citizen 
signatures in support of a health reform measure for the Massachusetts 
ballot. Momentum generated by that successful signature drive led to 
the passage of important but long-delayed legislation on the rights of 
patients in managed care. Looking ahead, he was poised to play an 
important and growing role in revitalizing prospects for universal 
coverage in Massachusetts.
  John O'Connor was also an intense and tireless champion of racial 
justice. He was endlessly fascinated by the diversity of human 
experience. As an American of Irish heritage, he led the 1997 drive to 
create the first permanent U.S. memorial to the victims of the Irish 
Famine on Cambridge Common.

[[Page 26890]]

To John O'Connor, ethnic background and culture were intended to enrich 
the world, not divide it. He was proud to be known as an ``ABC''--an 
Armenian-by-Choice--after his marriage to Carolyn Mugar, an outstanding 
leader and activist in the Armenian community. John enthusiastically 
joined her to make his own impressive contributions to that community.
  His passionately-held beliefs made John an intense and frequent 
critic of the status quo in general, and of politics in particular. Yet 
he was profoundly optimistic about what this nation could achieve. He 
believed deeply in democracy. He looked for inspiration to the early 
years of our country and the nation's founders, and he read widely 
about them. In his campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in 
1998, he told voters he wanted an America that truly reflected the 
basic values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the 
Constitution--not an America that was simply the sum of its commercial 
enterprises or parochial concerns. Although he did not prevail in that 
campaign, he ran a strong race that impressed many people and made 
countless new friends along the way.
  With John O'Connor's death, we in Massachusetts have lost one of our 
state's most active and effective champions of working families, 
consumers, and the environment. John left us much too soon. I mourn his 
loss, and I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife, Carolyn Mugar, 
his daughter, Chloe, his parents, his brothers and his sister, his 
nieces and nephews, and his many godchildren. In his memory, we pledge 
to recommit ourselves to the many great causes in which John did so 
much to lead the way.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to pay tribute to 
two members of my staff who are retiring this week. These are two 
people who have really made a difference.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

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