8664 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS April 8, 1992 EXTENSION OF REMARKS CONGRATULATIONS TO THE INDE­ print" and the Washington Post and Los Ange­ To steal a phrase from today: "Not!" PENDENT REPUBLICS OF CRO­ les Times may be vying to be the national The story of Lloyd Buhl follows, and, as my ATIA, SLOVENIA, AND BOSNIA newspaper of record, but across the country colleagues will attest, it is the story of a real we all know that it is really the weekly news­ winner: HON. WM.S.BROOMflELD paper that is the voice of truth, justice, and the [From the Detroit Free Press, Mar. 25, 1992) OF MICHIGAN American way. PUBLISHER'S THE STORY AT SMALLTOWN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Every once in a while a special opportunity NEWSPAPER comes our way to remind us of just what Wednesday, April 8, 1992 (By David McKay) these pioneers and preservers of a very DECKERVILLE.-Lloyd F. Buhl, overseer of Mr. BROOMFIELD. Mr. Speaker, today the unique slice of American life mean to us. I what his headlines call "The Land of Buhl U.S. Government officially extended diplomatic really feel for my colleagues from big city dis­ Newspapers," treats his Sanilac County vil­ recognition to the independent states of Cro­ tricts who never get to know the special terror lage as his domain. atia, Slovenia, and Bosnia. I wish those new that comes from working-and sparring-with Many of his 1,800-plus readers must under­ nations good luck as they mark this historic a small weekly newspaper editor. They, and stand. occasion. After much delay, the administration Every week, readers see the arch-Repub­ the contribution they make, are truly unique. lican publisher's strong views, playful criti­ finally made the correct decision and recog­ There is no more fearsome-or friendly-an cisms and conservative thinking woven nized those freedom-loving republics. editorial board than the committee of one who through the Deckerville Recorder's news and Historically, America has seen promoting not only decides what news is fit to print, but opinion columns. self-determination and democracy as its mis­ also what editorial comments will accompany His headlines scream across the top of the sion. Yet we stood back while a Serbian that news. page: strongman unleashed his army on Croatian Among these special people is Lloyd Buhl­ Bowling season gets under motion police and civilians in a failed effort to keep all the way across the State of Michigan from In the land of the Buhl Newspapers the federation together. We chose to forget our Ninth Congressional District-but right at Or: that recognition of independence can create a home in spirit among the hundreds of weeklies Bean harvest starts, like it or not, powerful deterrent to further aggression. Fifty­ which spot our great State, and certainly at In the land of the Buhl Newspapers one nations have taken that step before the home with those of us who pledge our prin­ And, another that had no explanation: United States, the leader of the free world. cipled allegiance to the Grand Old Party. New pedagogues being welcomed The Croatians paid a high price for our de­ Did you want Aunt Minnie's special apple In the land of the Buhl Newspapers sire to see Yugoslavia stay together. Over pie recipe from last week's church bake sale, Deckerville, Buhl's adopted home, began as 10,000 people died, and 700,000 were dis­ or maybe to know why Art and Marge down a lumber mill in 1865. Farming is the main­ placed. Croatia lost one-third of its territory the street have not been around lately, or is it stay around these parts now. The newspaper and sustained massive destruction to its infra­ to solve the mystery of that out-of-state plate that is now Buhl's began publishing 100 years structure and economy. Croatia's suffering that you saw up and down Main Street last ago this year. week? It will all be there on Wednesday, or After nearly 60 years as its publisher, Buhl might have been avoided if we had stood up himself is a local institution. for the values that guide our great Nation-­ Thursday, and you can bet the farm on its ac­ He does job printing and represents GTE, freedom, democracy, respect for human rights, curacy. swapping good phones for bad ones ("It's the peaceful resolution of disputes, and an And in Deckerville, Ml, people have been kind of a pain," he says, "but we get a buck end to communism. doing just that for almost 60 years, courtesy of apiece every time we go to the desk."). I am pleased that the guns are slowly falling Lloyd Buhl. Everyone knows Lloyd Buhl. Though the 35-cent tabloid hasn't made silent in Croatia and that U.N. forces are now More to the point, Lloyd Buhl knows every­ him much of a living-" We 've gotten by, and being deployed there. The European Commu­ one. that's about it"-it's what gives the big man From the post office to the Governor's of­ in plaid flannel shirt and suspenders a bully nity's official recognition of Bosnia takes effect pulpit every Wednesday. today. I continue to be concerned, however, fice. And, boy, does that make for a tradition Sometimes, Buhl uses that pulpit to dis­ about the ongoing Serbian-backed aggression cuss his views on politics. Buhl, after all, is in Bosnia and the shelling of towns in that re­ that's an institution. a GOP vice chairman for George Bush's re­ Over all his years Lloyd Buhl has served his public by Yugoslav Federal Army units. I trust election in Michigan. Election season or not, community, served his neighbors, with wit and that the administration and our European allies there is no doubt where he stands. wisdom-and not a little bit of news. But despite an occasional look at state and will send a strong message to Mr. Milosevic He has also served our Republican Party­ national politics, what readers get mostly is that the world will not tolerate his senseless and, unlike those purportedly sanitized and local news, Lloyd Buhl-style. bludgeoning of innocent people. nonpolitical purveyors of opinion in all those Among the government advertisements, I am confident that these three republics will big city newspapers, has made no bones recipes, school honor rolls, readers' letters become prosperous, democratic nations that about it where it counts most: the Deckerville and the obituaries, Buhl's columns " Free respect the rights of all their people. Those of Wheelin' thru Sanilac" and " Found on the Recorder. And, agree with him or not, the us in this body and the various ethnic commu­ Desk" are folksy hodgepodges of handouts, locals read it cover to cover. jokes and observations. nities in America who encouraged their quest Recently one of the big city boys, the Detroit $4,500 STARTED A TRADITION for self-determination will someday be proud Free Press did a feature on the Land of the of having shared their dream. The years have made Buhl comfortable Buhl Newspapers and editor Lloyd Buhl. It fea­ with the town and the printed voice he uses tures a great slice of American newspaper life to cover and reflect it. EVERYONE KNOWS LLOYD BUHL and, like the editor it honors, it deserves the He was fresh out of high school in New attention of my colleagues. The article, and a Haven and the Great Depression was sinking commentary on a photo essay which we can­ into rural Michigan when his father gave HON. GUY VANDER JAGT him the down payment on the Recorder-a OF MICHIGAN not share, follows-but before it does, I would just like to correct one comment about which S4,500 purchase. It was that or college, and IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES young Buhl knew he could make a living as Lloyd Buhl, perhaps for the only time in his Wednesday, April 8, 1992 a printer in a time when college graduates life, is wrong. He is quoted, following an elec­ taught school for less. Mr. VANDER JAGT. Mr. Speaker, the New tion loss, as commenting: "I lost, which is the All of a sudden, the boy who had started as York Times may offer "all the news that's fit to story of my life." a 12-year-old printer's devil at the Armada •This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. April 8, 1992 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 8665 Times in 1930 had become a publisher in In the end, Buhl says, he stayed because after 6 p.m. and began boasting: "As soon as Michigan's Thumb. Since then, says Mary "my kids did not want to move, so we kind CARROLL HUBBARD and his wife arrive I'll em­ Frey, the Times' editor, " We think of him.as of gave up the Lansing thing.'' barrass them with questions about cold a grand old man of publishing." checks and I'll follow them around the room Village Clerk Audrey Stolicker sums up KEEPING PAPERS COMING SINCE '35 until they leave. Wait and see." Buhl: "Lloyd is Deckerville, to me." She (By David McKay) took office in 1974, when he was village presi­ My wife Carol and I were unable to attend dent-a job his son Karl, 43, had until earlier DECKERVILLE.-In a former creamery a the reception.