HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. SPEAKER!, Every year on December 22nd, I pause to remember my great friend, mentor and my first boss, former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congressman Jim Wright. Today would have been his 95th birthday. My memories of working for him I remember with great fondness. One of my responsibilities was to give tours of the House of Representative to visitors from Texas and beyond. Only the Speaker’s office could give such tours at that time, and I always was thrilled to be able to let visitors sit in the speaker’s chair or to stand behind the podium where the State of the Union is given by the President. Speaker Wright kept a photo of his parents behind his chair, he never forgot who helped him to achieve one of the highest offices in the United States, and they were always close to his heart. He kept the same portrait in his office at Texas Christian University after he had retired. He was the one that taught me the importance of Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”