[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 23820]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO DETECTIVE JACK BRASHEAR

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. SHELLEY BERKLEY

                               of nevada

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, December 8, 2006

  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask you and all of my 
colleagues to pause for a moment to listen to a story about an everyday 
American who died before we could thank him for his selfless service to 
others.
  Police homicide detective Jack Brashear, is like so many who walk 
among us each day. They quietly protect and defend us and are rarely 
noticed or thanked before they are gone.
  Detective Jack Brashear was such a man. Just months ago, he lost his 
life. But his legacy lives. His story continues to touch others as it 
is spread by those who only learned of it while he lay in a hospital 
fighting for his life.
  Baltimore, Maryland Police Department Homicide Detective Jack 
Brashear had a full life of his own. Last January, off-duty and en 
route to a celebration with a loved one, he stopped on the side of a 
highway to help a woman with a flat tire.
  He was struck by another car while aiding a woman he'd never met. 
Detective Brashear spent the next 7 months hospitalized in intensive 
care trying to recover and return to those he loved.
  He never left the hospital. But while he was there . . . his name, 
and the kind of selfless man he was, became known to hundreds and 
thousands more, as his struggle began to touch more lives each day, 
moving beyond the hospital walls--even beyond state lines.
  Jack had not followed his father and brother into their family's law 
practice in Texas. He chose the less compensated and lower profile path 
of fighting for those who could not defend themselves when he became a 
detective in the Violent Crime Child Abuse Section of Houston's Police 
Department.
  He moved to the Baltimore Police force saying he wanted to continue 
to ``do something that mattered; to help people by keeping the world 
safer'', which is what he did for the last 26 years until the day he 
noticed one more person in need of his help--someone stopped on the 
side of the highway hoping someone would notice her despair.
  And that's why we stop what we're doing right now and reflect on 
Detective Jack Brashear. Because he and thousands of other Americans 
like him, notice every day the people around them who are wounded or 
helpless. They do not turn their backs on them. And they do not ask for 
pats on their own backs.
  Today, may we give back to Detective Brashear what he did not ask for 
or get in life: his country's recognition of his service, of his 
humility, and his invaluable role in our society. We give him our 
deepest thanks.
  I ask you to join me in offering that same recognition to all the 
``Jack Brashears'' who daily walk unheralded among us. We do not know 
your names, but we know you are there.
  If no one has thanked you, if no one has noticed the depth of your 
personal commitment or sacrifice--consider it noticed today. And 
consider that our thanks to you, and to Jack, will never be enough for 
all you have done.

                          ____________________