[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 20206-20207]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         KIRK DOUGLAS' BIRTHDAY

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor the 99th birthday of a 
great American: Kirk Douglas.
  I read about Mr. Douglas' birthday in the paper where he didn't 
receive gifts, but gave gifts. He gave a $15 million contribution to an 
Alzheimer's home in California. He did this on his birthday.
  I found out that he has a long history of charitable giving in 
philanthropy. In Los Angeles, he created 400 different playgrounds, has 
given money to children's hospitals, and taken a long effort to help 
people from all walks of life.
  I saw him also in a movie that I saw recently called ``Trumbo.'' I 
didn't realize that he had stood up against blacklisting in Hollywood 
and had encouraged the hiring of Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted writer, 
who saved his career from what was a scourge on the United States 
Congress and our history of free speech and democracy.
  I first learned all of what Kirk Douglas has done when I heard an 
apology for slavery and Jim Crow, and I found out he had been for an 
apology for slavery for years. He had an Internet site encouraging 
people to join a petition and lobbyists to pass an apology for slavery 
in this country.
  These type of things show that Kirk Douglas is the type of person we 
should emulate and honor. He has had 99 great years. I thank him for 
his efforts of charitable giving and for his philosophy of forgiveness 
and understanding.

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