[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 20067-20068]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                IN REMEMBRANCE OF KENNETH N. HARRIS, SR.

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I rise today with a heavy heart to 
remember Kenneth N. Harris, Sr., of Baltimore City.
  Ken Harris was a Baltimore City councilman, community activist, and 
champion of safe and family friendly neighborhoods. He loved his 
family, was so proud of his children, and he was my good friend.

[[Page 20068]]

  Ken grew up in west Baltimore's Sandtown and Park Heights 
neighborhoods, where the strict guidance of a single mother and 
afternoons at the YMCA gave him the self-assurance and direction he 
needed to succeed in an environment where so many others struggled to 
survive. He graduated from Dunbar High School and worked four jobs to 
put himself through Morgan State University. After graduation, Ken went 
to work for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland and began his 
professional life in the corporate world, including Comcast Cable. For 
many, professional achievement and financial security are enough. But 
not for Ken.
  Concerned about his children's school and his neighborhood, Ken soon 
became a community leader serving as president of the Leith Walk 
Elementary School PTA and the Glen Oaks Community Improvement 
Association. Encouraged by his ability to make a positive change, Ken 
ran for office and was elected to two terms in the Baltimore City 
Council, representing the 4th District, an elected office he would, no 
doubt, continue to hold today had he not decided to run for president 
of the city council.
  While in the city council, Ken championed the rights of his 
neighbors. He sponsored legislation to stop landlords from throwing 
tenants' belongings out on the street--saving many tenants from 
homelessness and cleaning up the streets. He pushed for remedial 
programs in the public schools, such as the Baltimore Truancy 
Assessment Center, to encourage students to stay in school. He took the 
police to task for not having enough real community policing but too 
many reckless warrants, arrests. Last month, when the new Hilton Hotel 
opened in downtown Baltimore, it was remembered that it was Ken Harris 
who insisted that if the city was going to financially ensure the 
development of the hotel, the city and the developer also had to ensure 
financial support for college students and afterschool recreational 
opportunities for schoolchildren.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Ken's family, his wife 
Annette, his daughter Nicol, and his son Kenneth, Jr., for sharing her 
husband and their father with our city and the State of Maryland. His 
life, which ended all too soon, made a difference in the lives of many 
others, and his contributions will not be forgotten.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that morning 
business be concluded.

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