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RECOGNITION OF OUTSTANDING STAFF
______
HON. SEAN CASTEN
of illinois
in the house of representatives
Friday, March 26, 2021
Mr. CASTEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute and express my gratitude to Anne Wick and Gail Kalinich.
Anne and Gail were instrumental in convincing me to first run for office, helping to build a campaign team, and then served as my co-
district directors for the last 2 and one-half years. For that, I owe them my eternal personal gratitude.
But I am ultimately a side story. Anne and Gail share my belief that the office is bigger and more important than the officeholder, and never shied away from reminding me of my relative insignificance. They did not seek public office, nor even to become district directors. But they were called to it. Anne is a 27-
year Navy Veteran. She's also a mother and a community leader. We met her when my own wife joined the local PTA, came home and said ``you've got to meet Anne. She gets stuff done.'' Gail is a retired law partner, volunteers as an organ courier and has been active for years with the local League of Women Voters.
These are necessarily incomplete resumes, highlighted here only to illustrate that they did not need to become politically involved. But the times found them. They wanted a government that worked. Not just for them, but for all Americans. Not just in times of crisis, but before crises to avert them. And so, after the 2016 election, they heeded the words of our own speaker. They did not agonize, they organized.
In their capacity as my co-district directors, their commitment to good government has never waned. First when they set up a district office. Then when they helped senior citizens get their social security checks. When they helped a World War II ``Atomic Veteran'' secure long-
overdue veterans benefits. When they organized events to draw attention to unsung women in our district who provide full women's health services in a church basement in the pre-Roe era. When they helped young high school students to learn about, and ultimately secure admission to our Nation's great service academies. In these examples, and so many more, public service came first.
Anne and Gail are emblematic of the millions of under-appreciated, unsung women who got engaged and stepped up to protect our democracy in 2017. They are a part of that crucial slice of the American electorate who have proven William Seward's observation that there has always been
``just enough virtue in this nation to save it--sometimes none to spare, but still enough.'' They are, in short, two remarkable women who deserve more recognition than they seek, and certainly more than I can provide in these few words. To loosely paraphrase former Saturday Night Live actor Harry Shearer ``Give me a Wick and a Kalinich, and there is nothing I cannot do.''
I am grateful to them both for their friendship, for their service to the people of Illinois' 6th Congressional district, for their patriotism. Our office, this body, and our nation will forever be in their debt.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 57
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