05.13.20

Durbin Honors Aurora "Cross Man" Greg Zanis On Senate Floor

WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) honored the life of Aurora, Illinois, resident Greg Zanis, who was known as “The Cross Man”. Zanis passed away last week after a fight with terminal cancer. For 20 years, Zanis hand-made and personally delivered 27,000 handmade memorials – wooden crosses, Stars of David, and crescent moons – at sites of mass shootings or natural disasters to honor the fallen.

“You may never have heard his name, but chances are, you saw his work… He drove to Sandy Hook, Connecticut, after 26 children and educators were murdered in their grade school. He drove to Florida to honor the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting, and returned a heartbreakingly short time later, after the Parkland high school mass shooting.  He drove to Las Vegas after 58 people were killed at a music festival, to the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, after 26 worshippers were killed, and to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to honor the 11 worshippers killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue,” Durbin said. 

“In this time when so many of the usual customs of grieving must be suspended, may we all find a bit of consolation and inspiration in this extraordinary, ordinary man who helped to ease the grief of so many,” Durbin concluded.

Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

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