[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 27981]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  REV. JESSE JACKSON: A GOOD SAMARITAN

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I am privileged to join my colleagues this 
morning to celebrate a man who I call a Good Samaritan--who battled for 
the impoverished, those without voices, those who cannot speak for 
themselves. Rev. Jesse Jackson, who is with us here today, is a man of 
all seasons. He rescues, he discovers, he challenges. And there is no 
doubt in my mind that as Martin Luther King rests in peace, he is proud 
of Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jesse is the reason that we now can celebrate 
the election of President Barack Obama. But I know that he is also a 
man that finds problems and solves problems.
  I thank him for coming to Houston, Texas, in the midst of the debacle 
of the Enron Company, and giving empowerment to the employee victims. 
As we stood outside that building and employees cried, Jackson was 
there with me to empower them and to give them, for the first time in 
history, a stakeholder position in receiving benefits that they would 
not have gotten. I thank him for coming to Galveston, Texas, and 
announcing and analyzing that insurance companies benefited from the 
work of slaves, and derived their wealth from unpaid labor--he demanded 
reparation for the people who were taken advantage of.
  This is a man who goes and seeks those who, again, cannot speak for 
themselves. We are gratified that he is a Good Samaritan on the 
battlefield, fighting for those who, again, are voiceless. We're 
gratified that he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 
and was the third largest Democratic vote-getter when he ran for 
President in 1984.
  Rev. Jackson, thank you, the Good Samaritan, our Rev. Jesse L. 
Jackson.

                          ____________________