[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 148 (Wednesday, November 30, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 30, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       AN AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I have heard that mixed emotions is what 
you experience when your teenage daughter comes home at 3 a.m. with a 
Gideon Bible under her arm. And I must admit, I have some mixed 
emotions when I look at this awesome responsibility that I am 
undertaking at this time.
  For one thing, it just occurred to me this morning, Senator Coats, 
even though I have been involved peripherally in politics as well as 
the private sector for some 30 years or longer, I have never been a 
majority, so I am not sure how to act as a majority and will try to act 
right.
  It occurred to me also that I spent 8 years in the other body down 
the hall learning how to condense 30 minutes into 2 minutes, only to 
come over here and find I can now extend the 2 minutes back to 30 
minutes.
  I think I would be remiss if I did not make a reference to the man 
that I am replacing here, Senator Boren. There is only one person in 
this Chamber who knows the close relationship that has existed for many 
years between Senator Boren and myself.
  Mr. Leader and Mr. President, we were both elected in 1966 and for 
many years, while I was in the State Senate he was in the Statehouse, 
we tried to pass and propose most of the reforms in Oklahoma at that 
time. And I want to tell Senator Boren, who is now the president of 
Oklahoma University, who is probably watching at this moment, that I 
will continue to try to complete those tasks which he so ably began.
  I think I would also be remiss if I did not respond to the wake-up 
call that hit us all on November 8. I think that the new group that is 
coming in--I will be one of 11 new Members--perhaps will be a little 
bit more assertive in our style than some of you are used to around 
here, but I think that we have to look back and see that this is not 
just a normal time in our country.
  Henry H. Beecher said, ``I don't like those precise, perfect people, 
who, in order not to say wrong, say nothing, and, in order not to do 
wrong, do nothing.''
  I commend to these people who are here today: I will not do nothing.
  I think also that when you look at what the message was that came to 
us, we have to think of Winston Churchill, who said, ``Truth is 
incontrovertible . . . panic may resent it . . . ignorance may deride 
it . . . malice may destroy it . . . but there it is.''
  And the truth is, people are saying we have got to make changes. We 
have to rebuild the decimated defense system, we have to get tough on 
crime, we have to do the things that we have talked about doing but 
have not done in the past. And I think also that we have got to stop 
denying the relationship between the soaring crime rate, the soaring 
drug addiction rate, and we cannot deny the relationship between those 
perverted behaviors that have kind of taken over this country, and the 
fact that there was a well-meaning but flawed decision made back in the 
early sixties when we expelled God from school.
  Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that there are 
many important people here in this Chamber, but the more important 
people are in the upper level of this Chamber in the family galleries 
up here. These are the ones that worked so hard.
  And not just my wife Kay, who has endured me for the last 35 years, 
but also the shiny faces. There are probably more Oakies than we have 
ever had in this Chamber. And these shiny faces represent thousands who 
are not here today and could not be here who fought in the trenches in 
this revolution that took place on November 8. I can tell you now, and 
I commit to you, that the work that you have endured will not go 
unanswered by my inaction. I will not let you down. And this goes for 
the rest of you here--I will not let you down.
  So, Mr. President, and fellow Members, it is with a great deal of 
humility that I thank you for your receiving me into the U.S. Senate.

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