Honoring Jack Kemp

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. I want to thank Representative Brady for the minute.

I was a freshman last year, and I got the opportunity to meet Jack Kemp on several occasions. He obviously was of a different party, but there wasn't a nicer person to meet and to welcome me into Congress and spend time with.

Congressman Dreier talked about being a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Well, I was the real deal. I was a Los Angeles Chargers and a San Diego Chargers fan, which is where Jack Kemp started his career, and we talked at length about different players with the Chargers and the Bills, Paul Lowe, Keith Lincoln, Elbert Dubenion, and on and on, and he was as nice a person as there was.

I went to his Web site, which if you do you will see letters he wrote. He wrote a letter in November to his grandchildren, and the letter is beautiful. It talks about segregation when he was with the Chargers playing the Houston Oilers and one of his teammate's father could not sit in the stands where his father did; he had to sit in the end zone. Jack Kemp was totally against segregation. He wanted a just society. He was for civil rights. He didn't see color. And he was a man who should be emulated by both sides of the aisle. We will miss him.

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