Shirley & Bob

Whether you agree with their politics or not, Shirley Chisholm and Bob Matsui represented some of the best of American democracy. Mrs. Chisholm opened so many doors for women and for people of color. Controversial, to be sure...didn't she stand with the Black Panthers over some protest in Oakland?...she could motivate and/or anger both ends of the political spectrum.

During her failed presidential bid, Chisholm went to the hospital to visit George Wallace, her rival candidate and ideological opposite, after he had been shot -- an act that appalled her followers.

"He said, `What are your people going to say?' I said: `I know what they're going to say. But I wouldn't want what happened to you to happen to anyone.' He cried and cried," she recalled.
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I will always fondly recall Congressman Matsui. I once had the opportunity to question him when he hosted some area high school newspapers in a "press conference". And, a few years later when I got entangled in the bureaucracy of the SSA, a letter to my congressman yielded swift and possitive results. Thank you, Congressman Matsui for your service to me and for your years of service to your Sacramento district and to our nation.



Shirley Chisholm, 1924-2005

Robert Matsui, 1941-2005