Full Text of HR0496 101st General Assembly
HR0496 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Paul Findley was born in Jacksonville in Morgan | 3 | | County on June 2, 1921; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, The Illinois into which Paul Findley was born was | 5 | | a land in which almost half the people of the State, and well | 6 | | more than half of the people of Central Illinois, rode horses, | 7 | | planted crops, and used draft animals to work their farms; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, The Central Illinois of 1921 was a world where | 9 | | many living men had fought in the Civil War, and many living | 10 | | men and women had memories of Abraham Lincoln and had heard him | 11 | | speak or had exchanged words with him; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, After graduating from Illinois College in | 13 | | Jacksonville, Paul Findley joined the U.S. Navy for service in | 14 | | World War II; he was commissioned as a lieutenant (junior | 15 | | grade) and served in active duty in the Pacific Theater; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, A member of the "Greatest Generation", Paul | 17 | | Findley met his future wife Lucille and returned home to | 18 | | Central Illinois, where he married, raised a family, published | 19 | | a local newspaper, and served as a leader of his community; as | 20 | | a respected voice of Central Illinois, he was elected to an | 21 | | open seat in the U.S. Congress in the election of November of |
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| 1 | | 1960; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, As a Republican member in eleven Congresses from | 3 | | the Eighty-Seventh (1961-1963) until the Ninety-Seventh | 4 | | (1981-1983), Representative Paul Findley saw and participated | 5 | | in some of the most controversial and suspenseful moments of | 6 | | our national history; he was a lawmaker during the Cuban | 7 | | Missile Crisis, the "Green Revolution" that completed the | 8 | | mechanization of farming, the Vietnam War, the upsurge of crime | 9 | | and disorder that accompanied the Sixties, and the outburst of | 10 | | national doubt that we call the "energy crisis"; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, As a loyal Republican but also as an independent | 12 | | thinker, Rep. Findley developed his own views on America's | 13 | | place in the world; not afraid of controversy, he shared these | 14 | | views with determination during, and after, his time in | 15 | | Congress; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, Having talked in boyhood with Central Illinois | 17 | | neighbors who had known and heard the words spoken by Abraham | 18 | | Lincoln, Rep. Findley was conscious of the role of his Central | 19 | | Illinois congressional district as "Lincoln's District", the | 20 | | future President having represented part of it in Congress in | 21 | | 1847-49; and | 22 | | WHEREAS, As a lawmaker who was also a historian, Rep. |
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| 1 | | Findley, in 1979, wrote and published "Abraham Lincoln: The | 2 | | Crucible of Congress", a pioneering work based upon original | 3 | | documents preserved in the Library of Congress that showed the | 4 | | complexity of challenges that faced a member of Congress from | 5 | | the minority party in the 1840s and how Lincoln grew in guile | 6 | | and skill as he faced these challenges anticipating his future | 7 | | life as a leading statewide lawyer, national candidate, and | 8 | | President of the United States; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, "Crucible" was only one of the six books Rep. | 10 | | Findley wrote and published in his lifetime, speaking out on | 11 | | issues of national and international interest and importance; | 12 | | and | 13 | | WHEREAS, On August 9, 2019, former Rep. Paul Findley died | 14 | | in Jacksonville, the place of his birth, at age 98; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, People like Rep. Findley, who served in uniform in | 16 | | World War II and came home to serve as lawmakers, are now | 17 | | passing from the scene; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Findley was a warrior who loved peace, a | 19 | | staunch, partisan figure; not everyone agreed with everything | 20 | | he had to say, however, all will agree that here was a man who | 21 | | spoke out and said what was in his heart, and it is not clear | 22 | | how such men can be replaced in today's America; therefore, be |
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| 2 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 3 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 4 | | we mourn the passing of Paul Findley, a son of Illinois | 5 | | College, a veteran of the United States Navy, and, for 22 | 6 | | years, a member of the U.S. Congress from the State of | 7 | | Illinois; and be it further | 8 | | RESOLVED, That more important than these lawmaking honors | 9 | | was Rep. Findley's life as a son of Central Illinois and the | 10 | | family he helped build to share this good land with him; and be | 11 | | it further
| 12 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 13 | | presented to Paul and Lucille Findley's son, Craig Findley, and | 14 | | to their daughter, Diane Findley, on behalf of Paul and Lucille | 15 | | Findley's grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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