{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/young-honors-jim-morris-in-floor-speech/", "Young Honors Jim Morris in Floor Speech", "2024-07-25", "2024", "2024-07", "Republican", "Senate", "IN", "Todd Young", "Y000064", "www.young.senate.gov", "toddyoung", "https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "**Click here or above to watch Senator Young\u2019s floor speech.**\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) spoke on the Senate floor about the life and legacy of Jim Morris, one of the most influential civic leaders in Indiana\u2019s history.\n\nIn his remarks, Young spoke about Jim\u2019s incredible life and passion for helping fellow Hoosiers.\n\nTo watch the full floor speech, click here.\n\nSenator Young\u2019s full remarks are below:\n\nMr. President, I rise today to discuss the life and legacy of Jim Morris. Jim Morris is one of the most influential civic leaders in Indiana\u2019s history and he passed away earlier this month.\n\nI first met Jim Morris about 20 years ago \u2013 It was when I returned home to Indiana after spending time in the military and after a brief stint as a staffer here on Capitol Hill.\n\nThe only thing I remember about that initial meeting was that it wasn\u2019t particularly memorable.\n\nJim Morris wasn\u2019t the kind of man who would bowl you over with his charisma or magnetism. This wasn\u2019t his style. It was never about him.\n\nBut over time, the weight of continuous heartfelt interactions with Jim could change a person. Indeed, you might say they changed an entire city.\n\nJim Morris died July 12. He was 81. He had a 60-year career of service, all told, to the city of Indianapolis, the State of Indiana, and even to the world.\n\nAnd though Jim would balk at the title \u201cmodel,\u201d in my mind, he was in many ways a model American citizen.\n\nJim grew up in Terre Haute. He attended Indiana University. It was there that he fell in love twice \u2013 once with the school itself, and once with his beloved wife Jackie, and that endured.\n\nIn 1967, not long after graduation, he became Chief of Staff to a young mayor of Indianapolis named Richard Lugar.\n\nSince that moment, almost nothing great in our capitol city happened without Jim\u2019s involvement.\n\nHe helped launch a university in downtown Indianapolis \u2013 until recently known as IUPUI.\n\nHe was involved with the building of the Indianapolis Zoo.\n\nThe Indianapolis Colts.\n\nThe Indiana Pacers.\n\nThey all had Jim\u2019s fingerprints on them.\n\nJim understood the key to healthy organizations and healthy communities was to connect and empower others and ensure that seriousness of purpose was met with civil discourse.\n\nIn 2002, Jim took that approach global, when he was appointed to lead the United Nations World Food Programme.\n\nHe served as Executive Director of the program for five years, caring for and delivering aid to men, women, and children around the world who experience a level of poverty that is difficult for us to imagine.\n\nThese monumental, headline-grabbing accomplishments were only part of who Jim Morris was, though.\n\nIndeed, his true legacy was far deeper, more personal, and I dare say more beautiful.\n\nHe always counseled friends to expand their work to its widest possible sphere of impact. Help more people, or as he sometimes put it, find someone who could use a boost.\n\nHe practiced what he preached.\n\nIndeed, countless Hoosiers have been affected by the smaller acts of altruism \u2013 funding local food banks, building neighborhood basketball courts, and similar generosities that we\u2019ll never know about.\n\nHis servant\u2019s heart no doubt stemmed from his deep and abiding faith in God.\n\nHe was an active member at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, and he didn\u2019t boast about his many accomplishments.\n\nInstead, he lived a life worthy of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 20: \u201cWhoever wants to become great among you must be a servant.\u201d\n\nA servant.\n\nI think about our forgettable first meeting often.\n\nI could be wrong, but Jim probably would have made a poor candidate for public office today.\n\nBut, you see that was a choice.\n\nFor me, Reverend Henry summed it up at Second Pres. last Friday in his memorial meditation to Jim. He said that Jim Morris chose\u2026\n\nHe chose hope over despair.\n\nConnection over division.\n\nGentleness over meanness.\n\nCourtesy over discourtesy.\n\nThere\u2019s power in that choice.\n\nJim Morris chose to be a decent man. He knew, and we must never forget, that no man can truly be great if he\u2019s not good.\n\nNow more than ever we need good men and women like Jim Morris in every corner of our nation.\n\nMen and women who become great through selfless service to their communities and endeavor to make life better for the rest of us.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:32:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/young-honors-jim-morris-in-floor-speech/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5680610667914152, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}