Honoring The Contributions And Life Of Edward R. Bradley

HONORING THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND LIFE OF EDWARD R. BRADLEY -- (House of Representatives - December 06, 2006)

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Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank my good friends on both sides for bringing this resolution forward before the 109th Congress ends.

Mr. Speaker, Ed Bradley was much honored by his peers, the best honor always to receive, from those who judge harshest and judge best. It is very appropriate that Ed Bradley would be honored here in the halls of the Congress of the United States.

Perhaps he was destined to be honored in any case, because he was a pioneer, a first of his kind. We are still in an era when the first blacks are coming forward and we honor them simply for piercing the iron veil of race, but we honor Ed Bradley in this Chamber today as a leader of his profession.

Indeed, we honor Ed Bradley because he became, in his profession, an admired American figure. That is very hard to do in the field of journalism today. Journalism is almost down there with Members of Congress, but there are journalists who are universally admired, and Ed Bradley was one of those journalists.

He was in, perhaps, the most difficult aspect of journalism, at least that for which he became best known, investigative journalism, and, indeed, he was part of the premier investigative journalism program, 60 Minutes.

What Ed Bradley did is really difficult to do. You have got to be fair, but you have got to ask very hard, uncomfortable questions. Somehow he was able to do that without having people dislike him, and without having the television audience believe he had overreached. Here is a man who began as an elementary school teacher and went to the top of the journalism profession at a time when blacks were not supposed to be in the journalism profession at all.

Bradley excelled in his profession in ways that you have just heard from the sponsor of this resolution, 20 Emmys and all the rest. I also want to say that here is a man who had many friends who loved him despite his fame and fortune. Would that Members of Congress could be loved in spite of their profession, not because of it. Two of those who loved him most, are also dear friends of mine, Charlayne and Ron Gault. Charlayne Gault is the functional equivalent of Ed Bradley in journalism as a woman who entered this field at a time when there were very few blacks at the New York Times and in television.

Some of us may have seen the memorial service to Ed Bradley that was televised. It was a real testament to the fact that Ed Bradley loved life. All of us workaholics here in the Congress who are about to go home need to have looked at that memorial service, because Ed was remembered as much for his love of jazz, a jazz aficionado, as he was for his extraordinary reputation as a journalist.

Now, most of us are likely not to be remembered for being in Congress at all, but the notion of being remembered for loving life and living life and yet going to the top of your profession, there is no better life than that. Thus, it is with great pride that I rise to thank the sponsors of this resolution for honoring a man who did honor to his profession. We give honor to his family by reminding them that he is still remembered and will not be forgotten in his profession and in the life of our country.

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