SLS 17RS-257 ORIGINAL
2017 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 23
BY SENATOR MIZELL
LEGIS POWERS/FUNCTIONS. Declares May 26, 2017, as John Wayne Day at the
Legislature.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To declare May 26, 2017, "John Wayne Day" at the Legislature in recognition of the legacy
3 of an American film icon and of the work of the John Wayne Foundation in the fight
4 against cancer.
5 WHEREAS, John Wayne remains one of America's most renowned and larger-than-
6 life personalities who, with a career spanning five decades, appeared in more than one
7 hundred and seventy films, which made him the most popular film actor of the Twentieth
8 Century; and
9 WHEREAS, John Wayne was an incredible actor and worked in almost every genre
10 of film, from The Quiet Man, a romantic comedy about an Irish-born, American former
11 boxer who returns to Ireland, looking for anonymity, but finding love and peace after the
12 violence of his earlier career; to films about post-Civil War stories and how soldiers from
13 both the North and the South dealt with the war's aftermath; and
14 WHEREAS, Wayne starred in a movie about Louisiana and its earlier attempt to
15 conduct a lottery that would not be riddled with fraud and corruption; however, forces in the
16 state are engaged in protection rackets and killing winners to funnel the money to corrupt
17 judges and line the pockets of the miscreants; Wayne is a Yankee attorney traveling to New
18 Orleans to take the post of state's attorney with the goal of ending the lottery; while sailing
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1 the Mississippi River, Wayne falls in love with the daughter of the man who runs the
2 Louisiana State Lottery Company and general chaos ensues, but a lavish Mardi Gras scene
3 provides a uniquely Louisiana feeling to the film; and
4 WHEREAS, Wayne starred also in primarily historical films, including The Alamo,
5 which he directed, produced and starred in, stories of World War II such as The Longest
6 Day, a movie about the D-Day invasion and The Sands of Iwo Jima, about one of the most
7 significant battles in the Pacific theater of the war; and
8 WHEREAS, the genre for which he is most remembered were the Westerns, stories
9 of cowboys, cattle drives, and gallant men rescuing women in distress, and his Oscar
10 winning performance in True Grit, which was a Western film focusing on traits that Wayne
11 brought to all his films; his grit, courage, and strength; and
12 WHEREAS, Wayne was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, bearing his
13 likeness and inscribed, simply "John Wayne-American"; and
14 WHEREAS, in 1980, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian
15 honor was presented posthumously by President Jimmy Carter, to Wayne's widow at which
16 time he remarked: "The Duke' still leads missions on heroic adventures on behalf of fairness
17 and justice. He embodies the enduring American values of individualism, relentless bravery,
18 and perseverance. He was the quintessential patriot."; and
19 WHEREAS, John Wayne was a force not only on screen, but in American culture
20 in the middle years of the Twentieth Century, and his successful fight against lung cancer
21 in 1964 seemed to support the qualities reflected in both his movies and his life, but sixteen
22 years later, in 1979, he succumbed to stomach cancer; and
23 WHEREAS, in the time between his bout with lung cancer and his death, he became
24 passionate about helping others fight the disease and, eventually, finding a cure; and
25 WHEREAS, after his death and to honor his life, John Wayne's family established
26 the John Wayne Cancer Foundation and the mission of the foundation is to bring the
27 courage, strength, and grit, traits so closely associated with John Wayne, to the fight against
28 cancer; and
29 WHEREAS, the foundation established the John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John's
30 Health Center in Santa Monica, California where research is continually working to
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1 understand fully the disease and to find effective treatments and, eventually, cures; and
2 WHEREAS, the foundation also funds an innovative skin cancer awareness and
3 prevention program, focused on youth and first taught to and continues to be used by
4 lifeguards along the California coast which is known as "Block the Blaze"; and
5 WHEREAS, skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, with nearly
6 four million Americans diagnosed annually, but it is ninety-five to one hundred percent
7 curable when caught early and treated quickly; and
8 WHEREAS, "Block the Blaze", a program that focuses on prevention and self-
9 screening, has educated over twenty-three thousand junior lifeguards in California and more
10 than two hundred thousand young people and by 2016 the program expanded to Delaware,
11 Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia; and
12 WHEREAS, John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa on May 26, 1907, making the
13 designation of John Wayne Day this year a remembrance of the one hundred tenth
14 anniversary of his birth; and
15 WHEREAS, considering his contribution to the nation over five decades of
16 portrayals of all of the basic American values, John Wayne was certainly an American
17 patriot, who through his initial activism and the continuing work of his family and countless
18 others through the John Wayne Cancer Foundation and the John Wayne Cancer Institute,
19 with its programs such as "Block the Blaze", has so positively impacted American life and
20 culture and has continued to do so after his death, through the Institute, with a grit, courage,
21 and strength that should be an example and a goal of all who treasure the values of this most
22 unique democratic nation.
23 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
24 declare May 26, 2017, "John Wayne Day" at the Legislature in recognition of the legacy of
25 an American icon of film and of the work of the John Wayne Foundation and the John
26 Wayne Cancer Institute in the fight against cancer.
27 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
28 John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California.
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The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SCR 23 Original 2017 Regular Session Mizell
Declares May 26, 2017, as John Wayne Day at the Louisiana Legislature.
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