[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1694-1695]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 AMERICA WORKS TOGETHER, COMES TOGETHER

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. As I was traveling, Mr. Speaker, to 
Washington, I had the opportunity to read the local newspaper. It's a 
good time for us to reconnect with our community, those that we have 
not been able to see, to hear their stories. And I was impacted by a 
story of two students at the University of Texas from different walks 
of life who had had a passion for football in one instance and a 
passion for basketball in another instance.
  Unfortunately, as they were aspiring to their dreams, both of them 
found that they had a congenital or a serious heart defect. Young men. 
One who had come out of the heart of Acres Home, a historically African 
American community, raised by his grandmother whom he loved; and he 
chose to stay close to home by going to UT Austin to play basketball. 
What a devastating blow to

[[Page 1695]]

find out he could not play when he first got there. What about the 
young man, huge in size, that almost lost his life on the football 
field?
  But the story is, in this month when we commemorate African American 
History Month, one was a Caucasian, and one was an African American. It 
just shows in this Nation how we can work together and come together. 
These young men have, in a sense, overcome their challenges, and they 
represent America's heroes. I pay tribute to these two athletes at the 
University of Texas and thank them for their leadership.

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