Full Text of SR0729 95th General Assembly
SR0729 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, During this session of the 95th General Assembly | 3 |
| of Illinois, the nation lost one of its most principled, | 4 |
| fearless, creative, humane, witty, literate, and influential | 5 |
| political and cultural leaders with the death of William F. | 6 |
| Buckley, Jr.; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., was born on November 24, | 8 |
| 1925 in New York, New York, the sixth of ten gifted children in | 9 |
| a family noted for its staunch American patriotism and its | 10 |
| profound devotion to the Roman Catholic faith; and
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| WHEREAS, By dint of his parent's business obligations, | 12 |
| William F. Buckley, Jr., was reared in Mexico, spoke Spanish as | 13 |
| his first language, studied at the University of Mexico, and | 14 |
| began a lifelong love affair with the people and civilization | 15 |
| of Hispanoamerica; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., soon became proficient in | 17 |
| the English language, which he mastered and commanded with | 18 |
| power and grace, and which he placed in the service of the | 19 |
| worldwide cause of human liberty; and | 20 |
| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., served our country in the | 21 |
| enlisted ranks of the United States Army; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., went on to a stellar | 2 |
| career as an undergraduate and alumnus of Yale University, | 3 |
| where he made his mark as editor of The Yale Daily News and as | 4 |
| one of the most memorable debaters in that university's | 5 |
| history; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., returned to the service | 7 |
| of our country for a brief tour of duty at the Central | 8 |
| Intelligence Agency; and
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| WHEREAS, In the finest tradition of thoughtful and | 10 |
| constructive criticism of a beloved institution, William F. | 11 |
| Buckley, Jr., in 1951 wrote his first book, God and Man at | 12 |
| Yale , a groundbreaking critique of educational practices at his | 13 |
| alma mater , in which he opined "I believe that the duel between | 14 |
| Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world. I | 15 |
| further believe that the struggle between individualism and | 16 |
| collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level", | 17 |
| and which was published by Henry Regnery of Illinois and the | 18 |
| Chicago-based Regnery Publishing Company; and | 19 |
| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., went on to write and edit | 20 |
| more than 60 books, including highly influential works of | 21 |
| political controversy, among them Up from Liberalism (1959), | 22 |
| Rumbles Left and Right (1963), The Jeweler's Eye (1968), Four |
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| Reforms: A Guide for the Seventies (1973), United Nations | 2 |
| Journal: A Delegate's Odyssey (1974), Right Reason (1985), | 3 |
| Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe our Country (1990), In | 4 |
| Search of Anti-Semitism (1992), and The Fall of the Berlin Wall | 5 |
| (2004); several compelling works of biography and | 6 |
| autobiography, among them McCarthy and His Enemies (1954), The | 7 |
| Unmaking of a Mayor (1965), Cruising Speed: A Documentary | 8 |
| (1971), Overdrive (1983), On the Firing Line: The Public Life | 9 |
| of Our Public Figures (1989), Happy Days Were Here Again: | 10 |
| Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist (1993), Nearer My God: | 11 |
| An Autobiography of Faith (1997), Miles Gone By: A Literary | 12 |
| Autobiography (2004), and Flying High: Remembering Barry | 13 |
| Goldwater (2008); a number of light and serious novels, among | 14 |
| them The Temptation of Wilfred Malachy (1985) and The Rake | 15 |
| (2007); and his even dozen of "Blackford Oakes" espionage | 16 |
| novels, which began with Saving the Queen (1976) and ended with | 17 |
| Last Call for Blackford Oakes (2005); and
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| WHEREAS, In 1955, William F. Buckley, Jr., founded National | 19 |
| Review magazine, a highly-respected journal of conservative | 20 |
| thought and opinion, in whose inaugural edition he defined the | 21 |
| magazine's mission with the challenging words that it "stands | 22 |
| athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is | 23 |
| inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so | 24 |
| urge it"; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., served National Review as | 2 |
| Editor-in-Chief for 35 years and as Editor-at-Large for another | 3 |
| 18 years until his death; the magazine survives to this day in | 4 |
| both print and on-line editions and is one of the most | 5 |
| widely-read and influential journals of opinion and criticism | 6 |
| in history; and
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| WHEREAS, In his early writings in National Review , William | 8 |
| F. Buckley, Jr., defined the essence of libertarian convictions | 9 |
| in modern America in these words: "It is the job of centralized | 10 |
| government (in peacetime) to protect its citizens' lives, | 11 |
| liberty and property. All other activities of government tend | 12 |
| to diminish freedom and hamper progress. The growth of | 13 |
| government (the dominant social feature of this century) must | 14 |
| be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of the | 15 |
| era, we are, without reservations, on the libertarian side"; | 16 |
| and | 17 |
| WHEREAS, In his early writings in National Review , William | 18 |
| F. Buckley, Jr., similarly defined the essence of conservative | 19 |
| convictions in these words: "The profound crisis of our era is, | 20 |
| in essence, the conflict between the Social Engineers, who seek | 21 |
| to adjust mankind to conform with scientific utopias, and the | 22 |
| disciples of Truth, who defend the organic moral order. We | 23 |
| believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by | 24 |
| monitoring election results, binding though these are for other |
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| purposes, but by other means, including a study of human | 2 |
| experience. On this point we are, without reservations, on the | 3 |
| conservative side"; and
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| WHEREAS, In fusing libertarian ideals with conservative | 5 |
| precepts, William F. Buckley, Jr., more than any other | 6 |
| individual, brought into being the modern American | 7 |
| conservative movement which he defined as a very American | 8 |
| approach to life, knowing that the government is not your | 9 |
| master, that God endows the individual, that America is good, | 10 |
| that freedom is good and must be defended, and communism is | 11 |
| very, very bad; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., declared in 1959, "I mean | 13 |
| to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, | 14 |
| subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the | 15 |
| authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the | 16 |
| voting booth"; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., went on to write more | 18 |
| than 4,500,000 words in more than 5,600 editions of his | 19 |
| semi-weekly newspaper column, "On the Right", through which he | 20 |
| taught a bright and inspiring vision of a free and decent | 21 |
| society to his fellow Americans, and urged them to act to | 22 |
| realize that vision; and |
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., helped to found the | 2 |
| lasting institutions of the modern conservative movement, | 3 |
| including Young Americans for Freedom, which was born at his | 4 |
| family's home in Sharon, Connecticut in 1960; the American | 5 |
| Conservative Union; and the movement's premier debating forum, | 6 |
| The Philadelphia Society, which was founded in Chicago in 1965; | 7 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, Throughout his career, in public and in private, | 9 |
| William F. Buckley, Jr., invested his intellectual powers, | 10 |
| moral fervor, and personal prestige in fierce opposition to all | 11 |
| forms of bigotry, including religious and racial prejudice, in | 12 |
| American life; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1965, William F. Buckley, Jr., ran for Mayor of | 14 |
| New York City in a campaign so focused on principle, so rich in | 15 |
| innovative ideas about modern urban governance, and so devoted | 16 |
| to reform and transparency in politics, that, when asked what | 17 |
| he would do first if elected, he memorably quipped, "Demand a | 18 |
| recount!"; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., created and hosted a | 20 |
| long-running, Emmy Award-winning, weekly television debate | 21 |
| program, "Firing Line", which elevated the medium and forever | 22 |
| changed, for the better, the standards of broadcast discourse; | 23 |
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| WHEREAS, To Mr. Buckley's enormous delight, the historian | 2 |
| Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., termed him "the scourge of | 3 |
| liberalism" and President Ronald Reagan declared, "You didn't | 4 |
| just part the Red Sea-you rolled it back, dried it up and left | 5 |
| exposed, for all the world to see, the naked desert that is | 6 |
| statism"; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1991, the nation's highest civilian honor was | 8 |
| conferred upon William F. Buckley, Jr., when he received the | 9 |
| Presidential Medal of Freedom; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., was a frequent and | 11 |
| memorable visitor to Illinois, where, among countless other | 12 |
| contributions to the political and cultural life of the Land of | 13 |
| Lincoln, on May 11, 1954, at the Union League Club in Chicago, | 14 |
| he debated John Nuveen on the life and work of Senator Joseph | 15 |
| McCarthy; on September 14, 1962, at the Medinah Temple in | 16 |
| Chicago, in a debate moderated by Irv Kupcinet, he took on | 17 |
| Norman Mailer on "The Real Nature of the Right Wing in | 18 |
| America"; on November 2, 1962, at the Palmer House in Chicago, | 19 |
| he addressed the Executives Club of Chicago on the Cuban | 20 |
| Missile Crisis; on December 15, 1965, at Sinai Temple in | 21 |
| Chicago, he debated John P. Roche on the Vietnam War; on | 22 |
| December 1, 1967, he addressed the Conservative Club of Chicago | 23 |
| on "The Breakdown in Urban Law"; in August of 1968, during the |
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| Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he debated Gore | 2 |
| Vidal in a series of dramatic daily confrontations on national | 3 |
| television; on October 3, 1971, under the sponsorship of The | 4 |
| University of Chicago at the downtown studios of WTTW, he | 5 |
| debated the Reverend Jesse Jackson in a nationally-broadcast | 6 |
| episode of "Firing Line"; and, year after year, he attended and | 7 |
| spoke at meetings of The Philadelphia Society which, named for | 8 |
| the place of the American Founding, was established, and has | 9 |
| often met, in Chicago; and
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| WHEREAS, Some of the closest friends, colleagues, | 11 |
| companions, and collaborators of William F. Buckley, Jr., were | 12 |
| natives, citizens, and residents of Illinois, including James | 13 |
| Burnham, Jameson G. Campaigne, Jr., Mircea Eliade, James R. | 14 |
| Evans, Edwin J. Feulner, Jr., Milton Friedman, John A. Howard, | 15 |
| Henry J. Hyde, David A. Keene, Willmoore Kendall, Joseph A. | 16 |
| Morris, Revilo P. Oliver, Ronald Reagan, Henry Regnery, William | 17 |
| A. Rusher, Richard M. Weaver, George F. Will, and Eliseo Vivas, | 18 |
| many of whom survive him; and | 19 |
| WHEREAS, For more than 56 years, William F. Buckley, Jr., | 20 |
| was married to the former Patricia Alden Austin Taylor, a | 21 |
| devoted wife, mother, homemaker, philanthropist, and notable | 22 |
| social figure, before her death in April of 2007; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., died on February 27, |
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| 2008, in Stamford, Connecticut; he is survived by his son, | 2 |
| Christopher, of Washington, D.C., his sisters Priscilla L. | 3 |
| Buckley, of Sharon, Connecticut, Patricia Buckley Bozell, of | 4 |
| Washington, D.C., and Carol Buckley, of Columbia, South | 5 |
| Carolina, his brothers James L. Buckley, of Sharon, | 6 |
| Connecticut, and F. Reid Buckley, of Camden, South Carolina; | 7 |
| and his granddaughter and grandson; and
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| WHEREAS, William F. Buckley, Jr., is rightly remembered as | 9 |
| a gentleman and intellectual who helped shape the modern | 10 |
| culture of America with his rigorous mind, systematic | 11 |
| principles, magnetic charm, mastery of language, singular | 12 |
| personal style, vast private kindness and generosity, and | 13 |
| ever-present good humor; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL | 15 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that the Senate recalls and | 16 |
| honors the life of William F. Buckley, Jr., for his lifelong | 17 |
| devotion to principles of liberty and justice, his love of | 18 |
| America and the American people, his felicitous command of | 19 |
| language, his commitment to serious debate and the free | 20 |
| exchange of information and ideas, his elevating contributions | 21 |
| to journalism, broadcasting, and public discourse, and his | 22 |
| remarkable impact on modern history; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That the Senate mourns the death of William F. |
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| Buckley, Jr., and expresses its profound condolences to his | 2 |
| family and his friends; and be it further | 3 |
| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this Resolution be | 4 |
| presented to the family of William F. Buckley, Jr., and to his | 5 |
| colleagues at National Review magazine and at The Philadelphia | 6 |
| Society.
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