April 23, 1998 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E647 outpatient satellite facility and has gone on to Ginning Company. They support local schools PUNJAB POLICE FOUND GUILTY develop seven more of these centers through- and help students with their projects and ac- OF HARASSING REPORTER out South Florida. tivities. Bob's son, Mark, is currently in charge Fred has also taken his duties beyond of Anderson Farms fresh fruit and vegetable HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON Mount Sinai and has dedicated his leadership sales and is Vice Chairman of the California OF NEW YORK and vision to over 50 local and national orga- Cantaloupe Advisory Board. His daughter, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES nizations. His participation in many state and Robyn Black, is Deputy Director of the Califor- Thursday, April 23, 1998 federal legislative issues has been critical to nia Department of Industrial Relations. Robyn the passage of significant legislation. has served as an advisory board member of Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, on April 22, We thank Fred for his endless dedication to California Agriculture in the Classroom and is Burning Punjab reported that two Punjab po- Miami's health care industry and for making a member of the California Farm Water Coali- licemen were found guilty of harassing a Mount Sinai Medical Center, a national, not- tion Board of Directors. Hindu journalist, Sanjiv Sharma, and three for-profit, independent teaching hospital a other members of his family. Police Sub-In- force to be reckoned with nationally. His ef- The Andersons are a four generation farm- spector Girdhara Singh and police officer forts will leave a mark on South Florida for ing family. Their love of farming keeps them Balhit Singh tortured Sanjiv Sharma, his father many years to come and although he will be searching for new and innovative methods of Chander Muni Lal, his friend Ranjiv Thakur (a greatly missed, we wish him the best of luck keeping up with the constantly changing times. Chandigarh car dealer), and lawyer Ajit Singh. in all of his future endeavors, where he will as- Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I The police in ``the world's largest democracy'' suredly excel. congratulate Dick and Bob Anderson for re- are harassing journalists, lawyers, private f ceiving the Fresno County Farm Bureau's Dis- businessmen, and old men! This does not give tinguished Service Award. It is their excep- me a great deal of confidence in the Punjab CONGRATULATIONS TO DICK AND police. BOB ANDERSON OF ANDERSON tional dedication and contribution to farming that warrant this recognition. I ask my col- On September 21, 1996, Mr. Sharma had FARMS appeared at a hearing in Patiala. On their way leagues to join me in wishing Dick and Bob home, they were intercepted at Bahadurgarh, Anderson many more years of success. HON. GEORGE P. RADANOVICH according to Burning Punjab, by a police offi- OF CALIFORNIA f cer who brought them back to Patiala, where IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES they were beaten. The four men filed a com- Thursday, April 23, 1998 WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY: LABOR plaint with the high court, which ordered the TO NEIGHBOR AWARD district magistrate to investigate the matter. Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise The investigation report called for criminal ac- today to congratulate Dick and Bob Anderson tion against these two police officers. of Anderson Farms for receiving the Fresno Unfortunately, this conduct is typical of the County Farm Bureau's Distinguished Service HON. BOB FILNER Punjab police. Here is a police force which Award. The Andersons have been providing OF CALIFORNIA kidnapped human-rights activist Jaswant dedicated service to the agricultural commu- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Singh Khalra, which just last month raped 17- nity since the 1940's and are very deserving year-old Hardip Kaur, and which has mur- of this honor. Thursday, April 23, 1998 dered thousands of Sikhs and collected cash Dick and Lesta Anderson began farming in bounties for doing so. These are not the ac- Tulare in 1940. Over the years, both of their Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to tions of a law-enforcement agency in a demo- sons, Bob and Craig, and grandchildren have recognize the Sheet Metal Workers Union cratic state. They are the actions of a tyran- joined in the family farming enterprises. Local 206 and the Ironworkers Union Local nical occupying force. We must take strong In 1974, the Andersons purchased land and 229, as they are honored by the San Diego- action to stop this routine oppression. equipment in the Huron area from the Giffen Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL±CIO for The United States must speak out for basic Ranch. They started Vasto Valle Farms, Inc. their strong support of the Labor to Neighbor human rights in Punjab, Khalistan. We should where Bob Anderson served as the ranch program. The Labor to Neighbor program edu- impose strong sanctions on this corrupt re- manager. During the first year, with only one cates and involves union members and their gime and speak out in support of a free and tractor operating, they managed to harvest to- families in the campaign to protect jobs and fair plebiscite on the political status of Punjab, matoes and a variety of row crops. During the the future of working people in San Diego and Khalistan. These measures will help to end 1970's, they primarily farmed tomatoes, on- Imperial Counties. the kind of tyrannical abuses that were in- ions, melons, and lettuce. flicted on Sanjiv Sharma. The Sheet Metal Workers Local 206 is In the 1980's, the water situation and com- f modity prices affected their cropping patterns. being recognized for its leadership role in the The Andersons added many vegetable crops Farm Team Project that recruits and develops CUBAN-AMERICAN ARTIST XAVIER which were new to the Westside. These crops future candidates for all levels of elected office CORTADA included peppers, mixed melons, corn, celery, throughout our area. They also provided major garlic, broccoli, leaf lettuce, cauliflower, beans, financial assistance for the Voter List Project HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN and cabbage. With their increased interest in and for the fight against Proposition 226, the OF FLORIDA thinly-veiled attack on organized labor's right vegetable production, the Andersons recog- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES nized the opportunity of building and operating to participate in our democratic process. Thursday, April 23, 1998 their own cold storage facility and began to The Ironworkers Local 229 is being recog- ship vegetables under their own labels of nized for their ongoing commitment to Labor Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I would Vasto Valle Farms, Weston, and Dancin to Neighbor, having been also recognized last like to pay tribute to Xavier Cortada for his Andson. year with this same honor. Local 229 orga- newly unveiled exhibition entitled, ``Cubaba''. In 1977, the Andersons formed a partner- nized an annual Labor to Neighbor fund-rais- Having exhibited on four different continents, ship and built a state of the art greenhouse ing golf tournament to support efforts to edu- this month marks the inception of Xavier's first nursery in Huron. The Plantel Central Valley cate union members on important issues and solo show in his hometown of Miami, Florida. Growing up Cuban-American in Miami was Nursery now has 127,000 square feet of elections throughout San Diego and Imperial greenhouse space, with plenty of room for ex- the foundation that inspired Xavier to paint the Counties. pansion. enlightening cultural celebration that is Anderson Farms has grown significantly For these activities, the San Diego-Imperial Cubaba. With combined elements of Hispanic over the years. The Andersons now plant Counties Labor Council, AFL±CIO recognizes culture and of Anglo-American college life, Xa- vegetables during every month of the year. In the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 206 and vier gave life to the feelings of ``identity and 1998, the Andersons expected to grow about the Ironworkers Local 229 with their ``Labor to belonging, about then and now, about being 6,400 acres of vegetables. Neighbor Award.'' I am pleased to join in hon- Cuban, being American, being both and being Dick and Bob Anderson have always been oring their contributions to the working families neither.'' The renegotiation of identity that mir- supportive of their community. They have both of both San Diego County and Imperial Coun- rors members of the Cuban generation who served on the Board of Directors of the Huron ty. find themselves ``on the hyphen''. E648 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks April 23, 1998 The Miami-based artist is also an attorney tics, and it certainly won't make the national line headed for the gas chambers.'' Through and a community leader who is able to ex- news. But it is a major achievement nonethe- luck and the sheer will to survive, these were press his concerns for social and political less in the lives of two people, their family and some of the very fortunate who lived to tell the issues while exploring topics such as commu- the people whom they have touched. And it il- story of that horror. nity development, racism, violence, poverty, lustrates very clearly that ``family values'' can The second part of their stories is also simi- political freedom, AIDS, and Cuba. work and that when they do, it is a real treas- larÐa variant of the American dream. These Prestigious accomplishments achieved by ure. courageous men came to the United States Xavier include having been commissioned to On August 7, 1998, the family and friends of with ``little English and less money.'' Despite create public art for organizations such as Cora and Walter Tharp will celebrate 50 years their lack of friends and mentors, they found Nike, HBO, MADD and Indiana's Governor's of a couple who understand and live ``family the drive to succeed. As Loomis notes, ``many office. He has been commissioned to create values''. millions who were unencumbered by the community murals by museums such as the It is definitely an event worth celebrating. heavy, exhausting baggage of the Holocaust Lowe Art Museum, the Wolfsonian and the f had the same opportunities and never reached Miami Youth Museum. out to seize them as these men did.'' Their In Cubaba, this talented painter and social TRIBUTE TO SIGI ZIERING success in view of the immense obstacles that voice has reaffirmed the existence of impeded their path makes their stories all the biculturalism through his celebration of oil col- HON. TOM LANTOS more remarkable. ors on canvas and expression of Cuban nos- OF CALIFORNIA One other element that is also common to talgia and American reality. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES these five outstanding business leadersÐthey are ``Founders'' of the U.S. Holocaust Memo- f Thursday, April 23, 1998 rial Museum here in Washington, D.C. They TRIBUTE TO JAMES McSHANE Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, today represent- have shown a strong commitment to remem- atives of the Congress, the Administration, bering the brutal horrors of the Holocaust, HON. ANNA G. ESHOO and the Supreme Court gathered in the Great paying honor to its victims, and working to OF CALIFORNIA Rotunda of this historic building for the Na- prevent the repetition of this vicious inhuman- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES tional Civic Commemoration to remember the ity. Thursday, April 23, 1998 victims of the Holocaust. This annual national Mr. Speaker, Sigi Ziering is one of the five memorial service pays tribute to the six million Holocaust survivors and leading American en- Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to Jews who died through senseless and system- trepreneurs highlighted in this article. Sigi is honor James McShane on the occasion of his atic Nazi terror and brutality. At this somber the Chairman of Diagnostic Products Corpora- 90th birthday. commemoration, we also honored those he- tion in Los Angeles. As we here in the Con- Mr. McShane was born in County Donegal roic American and other Allied forces who lib- gress mark the annual Days of Remembrance in Ireland on April 26, 1908. Named for his erated the Nazi concentration camps over half in honor of the victims of Nazi terror, I am in- grandfather and one of ten children, he immi- a century ago. serting the profile of Sigi Ziering from Fortune grated to the United States in 1929 and proud- Mr. Speaker, this past week Fortune Maga- Magazine to be placed in the RECORD. ly became an American citizen. Mr. McShane zine (April 13, 1998) devoted several pages to patriotically defended his adopted homeland SIGI ZIERING, LOS ANGELES, CHAIRMAN, an article entitled ``Everything in History was DIAGNOSTIC PRODUCTS CORP. during World War II, enlisting in the U.S. Army Against Them,'' which profiles five survivors of in 1941 and serving as a Master Sergeant Holocaust survivors, the saying goes, are Nazi savagery who came to the United States conditioned not to cry. But on May 8, 1997, until October 1, 1945. During the conflict, he penniless and built fortunes here in their when the founders of the Holocaust Memo- found time to marry Marie Stirn, with whom he adopted homeland. It is significant, Mr. Speak- rial Museum met for a reunion—and when had three children: Dennis James, Margaret er, that four of these five are residents of my the flags of 32 U.S. Army divisions that had Mary, and Kathleen Bridget. Dennis James home state of California. Mr. Sigi Ziering of liberated the concentration camps were pa- raded into the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol— has gone on to become an outstanding doctor Los Angeles was one of the five that Fortune for the people of California's 14th Congres- Sigi Ziering, today a serious, reflective man Magazine selected to highlight in this extraor- of 70, wept. He spoke of this moment in a sional District and a long-term partner for dinary article, and I want to pay tribute to him Richard Gordon, who serves on the San speech: ‘‘Today I cried because the worst today. memory of the ghetto and the camps was the Mateo County Board of Supervisors. Sigi Ziering, like the other four singled out feeling of total isolation and total abandon- Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me by Fortune Magazine, has a unique story, but ment by the rest of the world. This feeling of in congratulating James McShane on his 90th there are common threads to these five tales utter despair and hopelessness weighed more birthday and in honoring his service to our na- of personal success. The story of the penni- heavily on us than the constant hunger, the tion and the legacy he has provided us beatings, and the imminent death facing us less immigrant who succeeds in America is a every minute.’’ His tears, he said, were for through his loving family. familiar theme in our nation's lore, but these f the millions who never got to see the flags. stories involve a degree of courage and deter- His own ordeal began in Kassel, Germany, CELEBRATING THE 50TH WEDDING mination unmatched in the most inspiring of where his father, a Polish citizen, was a ANNIVERSARY FOR CORA AND Horatio Alger's stories. clothing merchant. In 1939 the father fled to WALTER THARP These men were, in the words of author England, expecting his wife and two chil- Carol J. Loomis, ``Holocaust survivors in the dren—Sigi (then officially Siegfried), 11, and most rigorous sense,'' they ``actually experi- Herman, 12—to follow as soon as they, too, HON. JIM BUNNING could get visas. Instead, they became enced the most awful horrors of the Holo- OF KENTUCKY trapped in Germany. caust, enduring a Nazi death camp or a con- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES The three scraped by until late 1941, when centration camp or one of the ghettos that the Germans summarily transported 1,000 Thursday, April 23, 1998 were essentially holding pens for those Jews, the Zierings included, to Rigi, Latvia. Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, all of us like to camps.'' Some of the adult men in the group were talk about ``family values.'' But all too often They picked themselves up ``from the very sent directly to a nearby death camp, and cruelest of circumstances, they traveled to the rest of the Jews were installed in a ghet- we, and particularly the media, focus our at- to bloodstained from murders just carried tention on ``family failures''Ðneglected chil- America and prospered as businessmen. They out. Of the entire 1,000, Sigi Ziering believes dren, broken homes, spouse abuse. We did it, to borrow a phrase from Elie Wiesel, that only 16 survived the war, among them, should not forget that we need also to head- when everything in history was against them.'' besides himself, his mother and brother. line the success stories of ``family values''. They were teenagers or younger when World In Riga the boys actually went to school There are lots of them and they should not be War II began. They lost six years of their for a while. But their mother, wanting the ignored. youth and six years of education. ``They were Germans to think them useful, required One of these success stories is about to be deprived of liberty and shorn of dignity. All lost them to drop out and work. Once Sigi had a plum job in a ‘‘fish hall,’’ from which he was celebrated in my congressional districtÐthe relatives, and most lost one or both parents. able to smuggle food back to the ghetto. As 50th wedding anniversary of Cora and Walter Each . . . was forced to live constantly with he sneaked in with the food, he would some- Tharp of Fort Thomas, Kentucky. the threat of death and the knowledge that times pass dead Jews who had been caught The Tharps' 50th anniversary may be an next time he might be `thumbed' not into a line doing the same and been hanged in the overlooked event in terms of international poli- of prisoners allowed to live, but into another streets as an example.