[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1466-1467]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HONORING BEV RENS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Iowa 
(Mr. Braley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, there are 435 Members of the House 
of Representatives. We come from all over the country, and every one of 
us encounters people from the towns and cities and rural parts of our 
district that inspire us through the heroic action that they exhibit 
every day of their lives.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to talk about one of those heroic 
people that I've known for 35 years. Her name is Bev Rens, and I met 
her when I was working with her husband at a grain elevator in the 
small town of Hartwick, Iowa. I later got to know her better playing 
softball for a team called the Front Street Tap located in Brooklyn, 
Iowa, and Bev's voice was always the loudest voice on the field because 
that's the kind of person that she is. She is passionate, she is fierce 
in her dedication to her friends, and she has devoted her entire life 
to making her community, her State, and her country a better place for 
all Americans.
  Bev recently had a curveball thrown at her when she was diagnosed 
with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS--Lou Gehrig's 
Disease. Bev has always taken life head-on, and that's how she 
addressed this challenge, the same way she has lived her life every day 
that she has spent on this Earth. She didn't get into self-pity. She 
started thinking about what she could do to stay connected to her 
friends, her family, and the important issues that she has cared about 
all of her life.
  Those of us who have known Bev have known her as a nurse, as a 
community volunteer, and a political activist. And, in fact, her start 
in politics began in 1988 in the Iowa caucuses when she went to caucus 
for a candidate named Jesse Jackson. And she participated in her last 
Iowa caucus for another political candidate named Barack Obama. Bev 
recently celebrated her birthday on February 3, and you can see her 
surrounded in this picture by friends and family, including a 
granddaughter that is the light of her life.
  But one of the things that Bev's life teaches us is that we face 
challenges every day, and no challenge is too great for us to solve if 
we come together in a spirit of cooperation and a belief in the common 
good, that we can solve the problems that we face as a country. And 
that's why I am here talking about my friend Bev Rens, because she is 
an inspiration to all of us in terms of what we can do to fight for a 
better America.
  She decided a long time ago that access to health care was an 
important priority being denied millions of Americans, and she knew 
that from her work as a front-line care provider taking care of sick 
people and trying to take care of them in their end of life 
experiences, which is one of the most precious times that a family gets 
to spend together. So as a nurse, Bev fought for health care 
improvement that would improve quality of care to patients and expand 
access to care so that no American family could say that a loved one 
died because they didn't have access to the type of care that all 
Americans deserve.
  It's important for those of us who are struggling with this issue of 
how we provide quality, affordable health care to Americans to think 
about inspirational people like Bev and what she has done her entire 
life to help people in need, whether as a community volunteer, as a 
nurse, as an activist. What is the legacy that we will leave to our 
children and grandchildren when they look back at this Congress and 
say, What did you do to help me in my time of need? Because Bev never 
worries about that question. She says, I'll be the first one in, and I 
will fight until I don't have any breath in me left to give. That's why 
you'll still find Bev on her computer every day, networked with friends 
around the country, talking about issues of vital public importance, 
trying to be part of the important discussion that Americans have every 
day about improving the quality of this country.
  And predictably, in the wonderful small town where I grew up, 
Brooklyn, Iowa, Bev's story has inspired many others to pick up the 
cause, and they formed what has been called Bev's Brigade, an army of 
loyal volunteers who

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show up at her house every day to take care of her basic needs after a 
lifetime of helping others. It's one way we pay it forward in this 
country, through the example that others have given us, to think every 
day about what we can do to help each other. And that's why Bev is an 
example to all of us of what the American spirit is all about.

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