October 12, 2001 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 19709 Poles to save one Jew, and the Poles who wrote only pornography!’’ When Bar Ilan TRIBUTE TO THE COLORADO were saving are the glory of mankind.’’ University in Israel was approached about a GENERAL ASSEMBLY Chaim Grade’s works reflect this truth. prize for the laureate, he was re- No doubt, it is Chaim Grade’s absolute ob- jected so emphatically that the issue was jectivity and utmost spiritual and intellec- never raised again. HON. BOB SCHAFFER tual honesty that inspired Czeslaw Milosz, Czeslaw Milosz’s report is especially im- OF COLORADO the spiritual and literary heir of Mickiewicz, portant in view of the general contempt for IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES to devote to him a chapter of homage in the Yiddish Nobel laureate. Thus, less than a Thursday, October 11, 2001 Milosz’s ABC’s, where among other impor- month before the incomprehensible news tant comments, he reports what a Jewish au- from Sweden, John Simon wrote on Sep- Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor thority should have reported a long time tember 12, 1978, in The Esquire: International to rise today to express gratitude to the Colo- ago: The Nobel Prize for Isaac Bashevis Sing- understanding is a delightful thing. How nice rado General Assembly. I respectfully submit er was cause for violent controversies among it was at the recent Pula Film Festival, in the following Colorado Joint Resolution for the Yiddish-speaking Jews . . . Above Yugoslavia, between looking at films, to find RECORD. all, . . . in the opinion of the majority of the a group of critics and scholars from various HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 01S2–1002 disputants, Grade was a much better writer countries in agreement about the vast than Singer, but little translated into overratedness of that self-inflated, dully rep- By Representative(s) Dean, Spradley, English, which is why members of the Swed- etitious, barely second-rate fictionalist Isaac Grossman, Fritz, Cloer, Alexander, Bacon, ish Academy had no access to his writings. Bashevis Singer. Berry, Borodkin, Boyd, Cadman, Chavez, Singer gained fame, according to this opin- Clapp, Coleman, Crane, Daniel, Decker, And Israel Shenker concluded the defini- ion, by dishonest means. Obsessively con- Fairbank, Garcia, Groff, Hefley, Hodge, tive literary obituary of the Yiddish laureate cerned with sex, he created his own world of Hoppe, Jahn, Jameson, Johnson, Kester, in August 1991, in the Book Review of the Polish Jews which had nothing in common King, Larson, Lawrence, Lee, Mace, Madden, New York Times: He shied from chicken with reality—erotic, fantastic, filled with Marshall, Miller, Mitchell, Nunez, Paschall, soup—and chickens—and became a devoted apparitions, spirits, and dybbuks, as if that Plant, Ragsdale, Rhodes, Rippy, Romanoff, vegetarian . . . ‘‘So, in a very small way, I do had been the quotidian reality of Jewish Saliman, Sanchez, Schultheis, Scott, Sin- a favor for the chickens,’’ Singer said. ‘‘If I towns. Grade was a real writer, faithful to clair, Smith, Snook, Spence, Stafford, will ever get a monument, chickens will do it the reality he described, and he deserved the Stengel, Swenson, Tapia, Tochtrop, Veiga, for me.’’ Nobel Prize . . . Grade was attentive to the Vigil, Webster, Weddig, White, William S., accuracy of the details he recorded and has A New York Times reporter in 1978, the Williams T., Witwer, and Young; also Sen- been compared with Balzac or Dickens. . . . year of the shocking choice of the Nobel ators(s) Matsunaka, Thiebaut, Andrews, This statement by an authority of Czeslaw prize for literature, Israel Shenker is known Perlmutter, Anderson, Arnold, Chlouber, Milosz’s stature, himself a Nobel laureate, is to have approached the late Eugene Rachlis, Dyer, Epps, Evans, Fitz-Gerald, Gordon, a very serious matter. Czeslaw Milosz goes the Editor-in-Chief of Bobbs-Merryl, then Hagedorn, Hanna, Hernandez, Hillman, Isgar, on to describe Jewish life in as it was Chaim Grade’s English publisher (now it is Lamborn, Linkhart, May, McElhany, and Jewish-Polish relations as they were, all Knopf); and asked, ‘‘what’s going on? Every- Musgrave, Nichol, Owen, Phillips, Reeves, as reflected in the works of Chaim Grade. It body says that it is your man who should Takis, Tate, Taylor, Teck, and Windels. have gotten the prize.’’ All this explains why is regrettable that he did not know what was CONCERNING THE EXPRESSION OF THE SENTI- Israel Shenker chose to end the definitive very well known in Jewish literary circles, MENTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGARD- literary obituary of the Yiddish laureate that Chaim Grade forbade all from nomi- ING THE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON AMERICAN with the laureate’s own ‘‘chickens’’ words. nating him for the Nobel prize, mostly be- SOIL ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001. cause his pre-world war II prophetic and po- And all this proves the great truth of the Whereas, September 11, 2001, may live in etic visions of doom were recited like pray- words of the man who is America’s con- infamy as the day on which more people lost ers both in the Vilna Ghetto and in Ausch- science, Abraham Lincoln, ‘‘you can fool all their lives or were injured on American soil witz, along with the poetry of the great Jew- of the people some of the time, you can fool as the result of acts of terrorism than on any ish poet Yitzhak Katznelson, who, together some of the people all of the time, but you other single day in history; and with his wife and sons, perished in Ausch- cannot fool all of the people all of the time.’’ Whereas, On that day, terrorists forcibly witz, and of whose works very little has been Most importantly about this case is, of commandeered four commercial jet airliners rescued. All this was reported by the sur- course, not just that the Yiddish laureate is scheduled to fly routes from the east coast of viving eyewitnesses in Yiddish and published a ‘‘pornographic writer,’’ as rightly de- the continental to the west in Argentina, then in English in America— nounced by Saul Lieberman, nor that he is coast; and check the Jewish Book Annual—the Amer- merely a ‘‘self-inflated, dully-repetitious, Whereas, Once in control of these aircraft, ican Yearbook of Jewish Creativity 1990–1991, barely second-rate fictionalist,’’ as rightly the terrorists implemented a dastardly, sui- 5751. Many people regretted Chaim Grade’s stated by John Simon and colleagues, nor cidal plan of unparalleled proportions never decision, for it was taken advantage of by that—as he himself knew and said—he is a before carried out in this country or any- the writer unequivocally rejected by the writer for ‘‘chickens,’’—whatever this may where else in the world; and Jewish writers and readers for reasons well mean. The most important is precisely as Whereas, The terrorists, piloting aircraft explained by Czeslaw Milosz, who, by what- Czeslaw Milosz testifies, ‘‘he created his own fully laden with highly flammable jet fuel ever means, got the prize and paraded the world of Polish Jews which had nothing in and with total disregard for the lives of the foremost representative of , common with reality,’’ as the result of which passengers and crews on board or persons on of the very Judaism. Thus, the issue is not he has misinformed and mislead people, pre- the ground, turned these jet airliners into that Chaim Grade does not have the Nobel venting them from knowing the truth about flying weapons of mass destruction, each Prize, but that, from the Jewish viewpoint, Jewish life in Eastern Europe, especially with tremendous explosive power, and aimed the least suitable, the worst possible writer, about Jewish-Polish relations. It is to be their weapons at targets in has it. hoped that responsible people like John and Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, As Czeslaw Milosz rightly testifies, the Simon and Israel Shenker will appreciate two of the most densely populated areas in Jewish people have the greatest appreciation Czeslaw Milosz’s testimony, that they are our country; and for Chaim Grade, especially because of his aware that the Jewish people are no ‘‘chick- Whereas, Two of these aircraft were inten- volumes of lamentations in poetry and prose ens,’’ that, prize or no prize, the Jewish peo- tionally flown directly into the World Trade about , for which Encyclopedia ple have rejected the so-called Yiddish lau- Center Towers in New York City, resulting Judaica reports, he is declared ‘‘the national reate, that his prize remains an incompre- in the terrifying, total destruction of two of Jewish poet, as Bialik was in his day.’’ hensible insult, if not an outrage. And we the tallest buildings in the world, home to Chaim Grade’s volumes resurrect the life of cannot be too grateful to Czeslaw Milosz, the some 50,000 workers and up to 100,000 visitors East European Jewry, such as it truly was, Polish Nobel Laureate, for having made in daily and causing untold loss of life and in- very much as stated by Czeslaw Milosz who, his ABC’s room also for Chaim Grade, the jury to innocent, unarmed civilians; and a Pole from Vilna, knew this life very well Jewish master, who describes Jewish life in Whereas, A third jetliner slammed into the and is a most reliable witness. Eastern Europe as it really was, and, above Pentagon in Washington, D.C., headquarters Czeslaw Milosz’s report about the Jewish all, the Jewish spirit such as it is, always of our country’s national defense and the attitude towards the Yiddish Nobel laureate and everywhere, beyond time and space, the largest office building in the world, also may be corroborated by the following vi- spirit of the Bible. causing extensive damage, loss of life, and gnette: Professor Saul Lieberman, the Dean RABBI EMANUEL RACKMAN, injury to persons; and of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Chancellor, Bar Ilan University. Whereas, The fourth plane, presumably America, heard the news from Sweden, and STEPHEN WAGNER, Esq., aimed at targets in Washington, D.C., or pos- exclaimed in utter disbelief, ‘‘What?!!! But he Counsel, Bar Ilan University. sibly the presidential retreat at Camp David,

VerDate Aug 04 2004 09:55 Apr 25, 2005 Jkt 089102 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 0689 Sfmt 0634 E:\BR01\E12OC1.000 E12OC1 19710 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS October 12, 2001 Maryland, crashed in rural Pennsylvania, Congress, the Honorable George E. Pataki, Bill Putnam later served on the MSTV killing all on board, including the pilot, Governor of the State of New York, the Hon- Board, a reversal that some found ironic since United Airlines Captain Jason M. Dahl from orable James Gilmore III, Governor of the it was a group started by VHF owners trying the Ken Caryl Valley area of Jefferson Coun- Commonwealth of Virginia, the Honorable to keep UHF people out of their market. He ty, Colorado, and flight attendant Kathryn Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mayor of the City of Laborie, originally from Colorado Springs, New York, the Honorable Anthony A. Wil- was the Secretary of the NBC Affiliates Board Colorado; and liams, Mayor of the District of Columbia, and was the head of the All-Industry com- Whereas, Although we may never know for and the families of the late Captain Jason M. mittee on Teletext in the late 1970s. His con- sure, authorities believe, based on cell phone Dahl of Jefferson County, Colorado and the tributions were integral as to why Fin-Syn reg- calls from at least two passengers on the late Kathryn Laborie of Colorado Springs, ulations were redone in the early 1980s. Bill fourth plane, Jeremy Glick and Mark Bing- Colorado. Putnam was an outspoken advocate on this ham, to relatives on the ground in New Jer- DOUG DEAN, issue. sey and California, that passengers hero- Speaker of the House Bill Putnam’s interests are greater than ically struggled with the hijackers and prob- of Representatives. ably took actions that prevented this plane JUDITH RODRIGUE, broadcasting alone. Bill is a past President from reaching the terrorists’ planned target; Chief Clerk of the and Treasurer of the American Alpine Club and House of Represent- and continues to serve as a U.S. delegate to Whereas, Many firefighters, law enforce- atives. the UIAA, the international standards club for ment personnel, military personnel, and oth- STAN MATSUNAKA, climbing. He is the longest serving member of ers worked tirelessly to try to save as many President of the Sen- that group. lives as possible in these disasters, and it is ate. In addition, he was written and had pub- possible that more than three hundred fifty KAREN GOLDMAN, lished 11 books, with more than two currently police officers and firefighters in New York Secretary of the Sen- City lost their lives in the line of duty; and ate. underway. Bill Putnam is also a decorated and distin- Whereas, The total loss of life and injuries f resulting from these cowardly acts will be in guished patriot. He is a World War II veteran the many thousands of people, if not more, CONGRATULATIONS TO BILL PUT- with two Purple Hearts, a Combat Infantry and, in the words of New York Mayor Ru- NAM ON BEING INDUCTED INTO Badge, and a Silver Star, and he has the dolph W. Giuliani, will be ‘‘more than any of THE BROADCASTERS HALL OF scars to prove it. He enlisted as a private in us can bear’’; and FAME the military and came out as a first lieutenant. Whereas, President George W. Bush and Bill Putnam is currently the Sole Trustee of the United States Congress, acting in bipar- the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona tisan agreement, have made available all of HON. RICHARD E. NEAL where he resides with his wife, Kitty Broman, the resources of the federal government to OF MASSACHUSETTS who is also well known in broadcasting circles. hunt down those responsible for these vi- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES cious war crimes; and Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to honor Bill Whereas, After these events President Thursday, October 11, 2001 Putnam on being recognized and honored by Bush declared, ‘‘The resolve of this great na- Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I the Broadcasters Hall of Fame for a long and tion is being tested’’; and would like to take a few moments today to pay distinguished career that has benefitted the Whereas, President Bush said in punishing tribute to Bill Putnam, a friend and constituent lives of so many in the Western Massachu- those responsible that ‘‘We will make no dis- of mine, and a pioneer in the broadcasting tinction between the terrorists who com- setts area. Congratulations on the good work. mitted these acts and those who harbor arena. f them’’; and On November 12, 2001, in New York City, Whereas, President Bush also stated that Bill Putnam will be inducted into the Broad- IN MEMORY OF MONSIGNOR in punishing the guilty we must guard casting Hall of Fame for his long and distin- CASIMIR CIOLEK against assigning guilt to the blameless and guished career in television. It is my privilege must treat all Americans with the respect to share with you his many accomplishments HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH that they deserve, and we must particularly and to recognize his great work in the Spring- OF OHIO guard against unjustified discrimination field, Massachusetts area. I am pleased to against Muslims, Arab Americans, and oth- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES share these remarks and his accomplishments ers from the Middle East; now, therefore, Thursday, October 11, 2001 Be it Resolved by the House of Representa- in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD and to con- tives of the Sixty-third General Assembly of the gratulate him on his well-deserved honor. Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to State of Colorado, the Senate concurring herein: Bill Putnam started WWLP in Springfield, honor the memory of a wonderful man who (1) That the General Assembly expresses the first licensed UHF station in the United has served his community selflessly his entire its complete and utter condemnation of and States. WWLP has a long history of ‘‘firsts’’ in life, Monsignor Casimir Ciolek. outrage at the terrorist attacks that oc- Springfield for a small market station. The sta- Monsignor Casimir Ciolek has served the curred on our soil on September 11, 2001; tion ran editorials, used longer news formats, spiritual community of Cleveland in countless (2) That the General Assembly expresses ran an ‘‘As Schools Match Wits’’ high school capacities, but most recently served as chap- its heartfelt sympathy for the victims of these tragedies and their families; quiz show, and aired a considerable amount lain at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, (3) That the General Assembly commends of local programming. For more than 30 years, where he held daily mass. Past assignments the heroism of the many emergency per- Bill Putnam himself did the editorials for the include the director of the St. Vincent de Paul sonnel and individual citizens who responded station, making WWLP the example of what Society in the Cleveland Diocese and also to the scenes of these disasters; local television is supposed to be. spiritual director for the national St. Vincent de (4) That the General Assembly wants ter- Bill Putnam concentrated not only on the Paul Society’s Midwest region. rorists to know they have failed in their mis- local market, but was a visionary into what Monsignor Ciolek attended Cathedral Latin sion to break the American spirit, but rath- broadcasting should become. He lobbied ex- School and John Carroll University before en- er, these heinous acts have served only to tensively for changes that would treat UHF tering the St. Mary seminar to become a strengthen our resolve; and (5) That the General Assembly expresses signals on televisions the same as VHF sig- priest. After ordination in 1946, Ciolek was ap- its full support to President George W. Bush nals. In the 1950’s, many television sets either pointed chaplain of Parmadale, the first Catho- and the United States government in its ac- did not have UHF tuners or had tuners that lic children’s residence of its kind. After a brief tions to hunt down the perpetrators of these were simply not as good as their VHF counter- period of service, he went to the Catholic Uni- crimes against humanity and to punish those parts. The ‘‘All Channel Act’’ and subsequent versity of America in Washington, D.C. to responsible, including any person or govern- FCC regulations, of which Bill Putnam was an study social work. ment that aids, abets, protects, finances, or outspoken advocate, made UHF stations able After moving back to Cleveland in 1957, he harbors the perpetrators, in an appropriate to get the market share that made them viable was assigned assistant director of Catholic manner. Be it Further Resolved, That copies of this in mixed markets. In turn, this created the plat- Charities, and ten years later was promoted Resolution be sent to the Honorable George form that gave us independent television, and director. In 1977 he decided to become pastor W. Bush, President of the United States, is today the backbone of FOX and the UPN of S.S. Peter and Paul Church in Garfield Colorado’s delegation in the United States and WB networks. Heights, retiring from his post in 1992.

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