[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4681]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           GERALDINE FERRARO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poe of Texas). The Chair recognizes the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember the late Geraldine 
Ferraro. There will be services held for her tomorrow in New York, 
which many of us will be attending.
  It was the night of July 19, 1984, in San Francisco that Geraldine 
Ferraro changed the game, changed the rules, and changed history when 
she accepted the Democratic Party's nomination as Vice President of the 
United States of America.
  I was there on the floor that night as a young delegate, and when 
Geraldine Ferraro walked out on that stage it was electrifying and 
inspiring beyond words. What her nomination meant to me and to millions 
of women everywhere, what she accomplished in that moment and what she 
said that night was all so important that her words still ring in my 
ear as if it were yesterday.
  She said, ``By choosing a woman to run for our Nation's second 
highest office, you send a powerful signal to all Americans. There are 
no doors we cannot unlock. We will place no limits on achievement. If 
we can do this, we can do anything.''
  That moment served as a hammer blow to the glass ceiling and a 
clarion call for a greater gender equality in our country.
  I remember reading Time Magazine, and Time Magazine heralded her 
selection as ``A Historic Choice.'' But even more than that, it was a 
life-changing event. It changed the course of women's lives for the 
better. I know beyond question that it changed mine.
  Because even in that not too distant era, it had been all too 
commonplace for those in power to believe that: She simply cannot do 
that. She is a woman. It didn't matter if you had the talents, the 
education, the abilities and the drive to be the best one to get the 
job done if it was a job that many believed women simply could not do. 
That was the kind of thinking that was all too often applied to roles 
in politics, to career choices, and to sports. And Geraldine Ferraro 
changed all of that.
  When she gained admission to Fordham Law School, an admissions 
officer said to her: You're taking a man's place, you know. You really 
should not go to law school.
  Geraldine Ferraro knew a woman's place was in the House, the Senate, 
or any job she wanted to take. When she first ran for Congress in 1978, 
all the political experts said she could not win in her home district 
in Queens. She not only won; she went on to become a leader here in 
Congress, and she went on to become a friend, a mentor, and a role 
model.
  That is one of the reasons that, to honor her, I have redoubled my 
efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and to add to our 
Constitution the simple words: ``Equality of rights under the law shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States on or by any State on 
account of sex.'' Those words embody the principles that Geraldine 
Ferraro lived by and the equality of opportunity that she sought.
  I saw her several weeks ago. She was full of energy and plans and had 
some constituent issues she wanted me to take care of. She never gave 
up. She never gave in.
  Towards the end, Geraldine Ferraro fought her own battle against 
cancer with the same dignity, courage, tenacity, and grace that she 
brought to all of her fights, whether it was battling for equal rights 
or for human rights, for women and men alike.
  It can truly be said of Geraldine Ferraro, this heroin and role model 
for the ages, what was once said of the great heroes of old. She was, 
as Tennyson wrote, ``One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by 
time and fate, but strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find, and not 
to yield.''
  Geraldine Ferraro. We shall never forget her. And I remember one of 
her great sayings was, ``Every time a woman runs, women win.''

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