Nancy Pelosi's Office Issues Statement Concerning Julia Carson

On Monday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi issued a statement concerning the choice of black Congresswoman Julia Carson of Indiana not to seek re-election next year.

"Julia Carson...will long be remembered as a bipartisan leader who fought for social and economic justice on behalf of those too often left behind in society. She never forgot the struggles of working families...Among Congresswoman Carson's proudest accomplishments was her successful effort to honor the late Rosa Parks with the Congressional Gold Medal. It took many years to achieve her mission, but Julia Carson's persistence ensured that Congress finally honored the courage and sacrifice of one of America's civil rights pioneers," said Pelosi.

If Carson had run for re-election and won, it would have marked the beginning of her 7th term in the House representing Indiana. She was both the first woman and the first black person to represent that state in Congress.

Carson has terminal lung cancer and says that her compounded health concerns are too weighty for her to continue in the Congress beyond the end of her current term.

Her major platforms have been those of women's rights, children's rights, and solving the plight of the homeless. Her fellow Democrats have said that she fought tirelessly against those who abused or took undue advantage of the welfare system, going so far as to prosecute them to pay back the money they had unjustly gotten out of the system.

In addition, she is the sponsor of the House National Defense Rail Act, legislation currently before Congress. The act would provide over $40 billion to develop high-speed rail connections and short-distance corridors between larger cities.

The news of her terminal cancer have sent shockwaves through the Congress and her many supporters, and even through those who have already been sensing that her other health problems may have been causing her to resign at the end of her term anyway and were wanting to see about the chance to be the one to replace her. One of these is her grandson.

It is possible that Carson will wind up vacating her seat in the House even before the end of her current term. She has had cancer for years but, she says, it had been in remission for some years, but according to her doctor it has now resurfaced and the nature of it is such that it is too advanced to be able to be put back in remission. Many people who have terminal lung cancer die from it within a year after diagnosis.

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