Full Text of HR0249 98th General Assembly
HR0249 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The Right Honorable The Baroness Margaret | 3 | | Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts, the daughter of a | 4 | | small-business grocer in Grantham, a large town in Lincolnshire | 5 | | in rural England, on October 13, 1925; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Despite her humble origins in what was then a | 7 | | strongly aristocratic, male-dominated society, Margaret | 8 | | Roberts won a chemistry scholarship to Oxford University; | 9 | | despite the distractions of the Blitz and World War II, she | 10 | | studied hard and graduated with honors in 1947; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, During her time as a student, Margaret Roberts | 12 | | developed a deep reverence for conservative economic values, | 13 | | which she saw as necessary bulwarks to the freedom of | 14 | | individuals and their nations; armed with these beliefs, she | 15 | | became president of the Oxford University Conservative | 16 | | Association in 1946; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, While working as a food chemist on a team that | 18 | | helped to perfect the product called "soft-serve ice cream" in | 19 | | the United States, Margaret Roberts continued her political | 20 | | career and was assigned by the Conservative Party to stand for | 21 | | Parliament in the heavily Labor-minded seat of Dartford; | 22 | | predictably losing the election, she met businessman Denis |
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| 1 | | Thatcher, who would become her husband and lifelong partner in | 2 | | 1951; and
| 3 | | WHEREAS, After pursuing legal studies and qualifying as a | 4 | | barrister in 1953, Margaret Thatcher again stood for Parliament | 5 | | in 1959 and was elected; rising through the ranks of the | 6 | | Conservative Members of Parliament, she was chosen in 1970 to | 7 | | serve as Secretary of State for Education and Science and | 8 | | became the Conservative Party Leader and Leader of the | 9 | | Opposition in 1975; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, Great Britain was at that time governed by a prime | 11 | | minister and government that were ideologically committed to | 12 | | socialism, and, perhaps as a consequence of this commitment, | 13 | | the nation was moving towards insolvency; Opposition Leader | 14 | | Thatcher's response, broadcast over the BBC in February of | 15 | | 1976, was to say that "Socialist governments traditionally do | 16 | | make a financial mess. They always run out of other peoples' | 17 | | money"; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, As the English-speaking world faced the grim times | 19 | | of the 1970s, Margaret Thatcher's uncompromising demand that | 20 | | her people rediscover their historic ties to the cause of | 21 | | individual freedom appealed to voters throughout England; on | 22 | | May 3, 1979, these voters elected enough Conservative members | 23 | | to the House of Parliament to give Thatcher's Opposition a |
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| 1 | | majority; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, On the following day, May 4, 1979, Queen Elizabeth | 3 | | II asked Margaret Thatcher to form a Government for the United | 4 | | Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, making Thatcher | 5 | | the first elected female head of government in Europe; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, When, in November in 1980, the United Kingdom's | 7 | | historic ally, the United States of America, voted to elect | 8 | | Ronald Reagan to be its President, Prime Minister Thatcher had | 9 | | a friend in the American White House with whom she could share | 10 | | the burdens of the leadership of the free world for the | 11 | | following 8 years; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, Prime Minister Thatcher led the United Kingdom for | 13 | | 11 1/2 years until November of 1990, making hers the longest | 14 | | premiership of the 20th century; her leadership was often | 15 | | controversial, but her friends and adversaries alike agreed in | 16 | | her unshakeable beliefs in individualism, freedom, and the | 17 | | United Kingdom's alliance with the United States; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, Margaret Thatcher lived to see the fall of the | 19 | | Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the government of | 20 | | the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1991, as well as the complete | 21 | | victory of the West in the Cold War, causes for which she had | 22 | | dedicated her life; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, The Right Honorable Margaret Thatcher was awarded | 2 | | the highest civilian honor of the United States, the | 3 | | Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1991; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, The Right Honorable The Baroness Thatcher passed | 5 | | away at the age of 87 on April 8, 2013, in London; therefore, | 6 | | be it
| 7 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 8 | | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 9 | | we pay tribute to the memory of Margaret Thatcher, one of the | 10 | | pillars of global leadership in the Cold War and one of the | 11 | | first women to rise to the position of head of a nation of | 12 | | world power; and be it further
| 13 | | RESOLVED, That we acknowledge and express gratitude for the | 14 | | friendship that Prime Minister Thatcher always bore towards the | 15 | | United States of America and its people; and be it further | 16 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 17 | | delivered to Baroness Thatcher's daughter, Carol Thatcher; her | 18 | | son, Mark Thatcher; the Embassy of the United Kingdom, | 19 | | Washington, D.C.; and to the office of the Prime Minister of | 20 | | the United Kingdom.
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