Vicente Gonzalez: “it is my own honor to rise and offer these remarks in support of the measure that would name the Federal building in…”

“it is my own honor to rise and offer these remarks in support of the measure that would name the Federal building in Austin, Texas, after former Representative Jake Pickle. As many that are gathered here tonight know that my father served in this Congress for 37 years and, of course, shared every one of those years, at least 31 of those years, with Jake Pickle as his esteemed colleague. We will hear stories often expressed by Jake Pickle and my father regarding the many rides they would take back to their district on Air Force One when LBJ was the President. They will always talk about the Civil Rights Act and the great vote of 1964 and the 2:00 a.m. phone call that President Johnson made to Jake Pickle, which is an interesting story in and of itself. The real story, though, lies in the phone calls that both my father and Jake Pickle received from LBJ before the vote. Jake Pickle is an extraordinary man, and I have had the great privilege of knowing him since I was a teenager. When I went to college in Austin and Jake Pickle was back in the district, he would come to the State capital where many of the students would work. And he would come in there and he would mentor us and he would counsel us. He is a great man in many, many respects, not just a great representative but everything that we should aspire to as public officials.”