[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9936]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  IN RECOGNITION OF JOHN JOSEPH HUGHES

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                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 5, 2001

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition and 
celebration of an esteemed author and free-spirited poet, Mr. John 
Joseph Hughes, on this second day of June, 2001.
  Born in 1915, Hughes witnessed the turmoil and gloom of the Great 
Depression and later served in the U.S Air Force during World War II. 
He was sent to India, Burma, and China where he witnessed the atrocity 
and horror of the battlefield; he beheld how impoverished the living 
conditions were in these struggling nations. His travels and 
experiences have made him a lifelong seeker of peace, righteousness, 
and justice.
  As an adolescent he contracted skin cancer. Though faced with this 
challenge in his life, he still managed to succeed. He became an avid 
Journalist and later worked on progressive campaigns to further his 
ideology. With his cheerful Irish demeanor and kind-spirit, Hughes has 
made countless friends in his life journey.
  Romanticism guides his life and spirituality, and even led to his 
thoughts becoming concrete in the form of free-versed poems. It is a 
collection of those wonderful verses that we are celebrating today, 
compiled in ``Cats in the Colosseum.'' Countless hours have gone into 
this compilation; the poems are sewed together with beauty and 
eloquence.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me in celebration of John Hughes and ``Cats 
in the Colosseum.'' We are truly blessed as a Cleveland community for 
him and his poems, and are grateful he has shared them with us.

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