Amory Houghton: “this clearly has not been a happy day here. We have talked about issues that divide rather than bring us together. But I…”

“this clearly has not been a happy day here. We have talked about issues that divide rather than bring us together. But I would like to talk about something that does bring us together. It is something that happened several weeks ago when a group from the district that I represent, in upstate New York, in Jamestown, NY, came down and entertained and gave joy and perspective to a whole group of us, those of us who were particularly interested in the Appalachian Regional Commission and the things that it did. Frankly, I would like to talk about this in a way that is sort of unusual. I would like to talk about names, and if you would bear with me, Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about the names involved, this the All-American Junior Guilders, great young group of people, happy, positive, the people who are going to be leading our country in the years ahead. They are associated with the Lucille Ball Threater. Lucille Ball incidentally, was born in upstate New York. And the driver and the life giver of this group is a lady called Helen Merrill. She has been involved with the theater for over 30 years and has been the spark of this thing, and you just feel better just seeing her and being around her. They performed at lots of pretty significant places: the White House, Oprey Land, Disney World, Kennedy Center. These kids range in age from about 7 to 16. It is an all-volunteer organization. It really makes you proud to sort of be with them.”