[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H2932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DAVID PACKARD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado [Mr. McInnis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I have just heard the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Farr] speak, and I want to say with some great deal of 
pride that Mr. Packard was born in Pueblo, CO. He was indeed a fine, 
fine gentleman and certainly a leader in our country and a leader in 
business.


                  the strength of family and religion

  But I wanted to speak tonight to my colleagues about a couple of 
things that over the weekend inspired me about family and about duty to 
our country. Over the weekend I had an opportunity to visit with a very 
good friend of mine. His name is Jake. Jake is about 20 years old. He 
is a young man. He sees opportunity in this world. He is one of our 
kids. I think I call him a kid; he is a young man. But this young man 
wants to go into this society and continue in this society and 
accomplish things that he has dreamed of all of his life.
  I was particularly pleased to visit with him this weekend because his 
friend, her name is Kara, and he is intending to propose to her 
tonight. Jake and Kara, I think, are good examples of the young people 
that we have in this country, of the assets that we have. I will come 
back to youth in just a minute.
  The second event I went to this weekend was in Pueblo, CO. Pueblo is 
called the home of heroes. In Pueblo, CO, we have had four of our 
people, four citizens from Pueblo, who have won the United States Medal 
of Honor.
  This weekend I got to be the guest at the Medal of Honor dinner, 
which we do have here in Pueblo, CO, where we honored 18. We had 18 
Medal of Honor winners in this room. You talk about inspiration, to sit 
in here, you see people, such as Mr. Di Havera. Mr. Di Havera not only 
won the U.S. Medal of Honor but he won the Medal of Honor in the 
country of Mexico.
  But the common thread that I saw at the medal of Honor dinner and 
with my friends Jake and Kara and with my own family was that they had 
the foundation of family and not only of the foundation of family but 
the foundation of religion. Regardless of the type of religion that you 
practice, it was amazing this weekend to see at the Medal of Honor 
dinner, how strong the families were in this large ballroom that we 
had. It was exciting to see the young people, such as Jake and Kara, 
who want to start out their lives together in this fine country. And 
what do they talk about? They talk about family. You know, a lot of 
times up here when we deal with these young people and they come to 
visit us in our offices, the questions they ask and the issues we talk 
about are a lot of things going wrong with this country, we have got a 
deficit, a budget deficit accumulating at a rate of about $30 million 
an hour, we have got a crime problem, we have got problems with the 
economy.
  But what we oftentimes forget to stress to these young people is that 
in this country there are a lot more things going right than there are 
wrong. I think that this generation, the generation of Jake and Kara, 
is a generation that is going to have opportunities that were never 
there before for any other generation in the history of this country.
  But I think that you have got to give credit for those opportunities 
to people like those brave people, men and women, on the Medal of Honor 
winners and the people who have set in this country the importance of 
family and the importance of religion as a foundation for 
responsibility, for moral values, and for duty to this country.
  In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to share with my colleagues 
the kind of excitement I feel being around a positive setting, there 
with the Medal of Honor winners, people who gave it their all and then 
there with young people who are excited about the future of this 
country. I, too, share their excitement, and I, too, share the 
privilege of being able to sit with 18 Medal of Honor winners.

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