[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3415-S3416]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO COMMERCE SECRETARY RON BROWN

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, as I understand it, the resolution which 
honors the memory of Ron Brown is still pending, and I want to make a 
couple of remarks in regard to that resolution and Secretary Brown 
before we close tonight.
  Mr. President, it is with sadness--and tremendous gratitude for the 
work their lives exemplified--that I add my voice to those honoring 
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and the extraordinary men and women who 
died with him on that plane.
  I am sure each of us will long remember just where we were and what 
we were doing when we heard that Secretary Brown's plane was missing 
over Croatia, and then, moments later, when we learned the plane had 
crashed.
  In my case, I was at home--packing to leave for Bosnia, Croatia and 
Serbia myself.
  So many thoughts raced through my mind. . . .
  I thought of the meeting I was supposed to have had the following 
evening in Zagreb with Secretary Brown.
  I thought of how, just a few weeks earlier, Secretary Brown had 
helped an electronics company in Rapid City work out the final details 
of a contract with a group in South Africa, and of all the people in my 
state who will be able to work because he went the extra mile for us.
  But mostly I thought, what a loss. What a terrible loss our Nation 
had just suffered.
  Ron Brown and the 32 brave Americans who accompanied him on that 
noble mission to Bosnia represented what is best about our Nation:
  A ``can do'' sense of optimism and determination.
  A generosity of spirit.
  And an unshakable belief in democracy.
  The men and women on that plane did not go to Bosnia simply to bring 
contracts to America--as important as that is.
  They went to bring hope and prosperity to Bosnia so that the fragile 
peace there might take root and grow, and democracy might replace 
tyranny.

[[Page S3416]]

  Hours after Secretary Brown's plane crashed into that mountain, I was 
on another plane with Senators Hatch and Reid. We spent 9 days in 
Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia and four neighboring states, assessing 
progress in the implementation of the Dayton peace plan.
  Every world leader with whom I met stressed the importance of both 
promoting economic growth and building democratic institutions to 
achieving a sustainable peace in the Balkans. Those were the very goals 
to which Ron Brown's trip to Bosnia was dedicated.
  In an article I read, a woman who had worked with Secretary Brown 
said it wasn't just that he saw a glass half-full when others saw it 
half-empty. His optimism was bigger than that. Where others saw a half-
empty glass, she said, he saw a glass overflowing with possibilities.
  It would take that kind of vision to see the path to a lasting peace 
in Bosnia.
  Ron Brown was able to see that path. And, he was able to make others 
see it.
  He was a good salesman. What he sold was America--not just American 
goods and services, but American ideals.
  The reason he could sell America with such confidence is that he 
believed in America, and in the goal of making America--and the world--
better.
  Ron Brown spent his life transcending boundaries.
  Boundaries of race.
  Boundaries of party.
  Boundaries drawn on maps.
  And in transcending those boundaries, he made them less formidable 
for all of us. That is part of the great legacy he has left us.
  I have been reminded these last few days of a scene in the 
Shakespearean play, Julius Caesar. It is the scene at Caesar's burial. 
Caesar has just been falsely maligned by Brutus as a traitor.
  Then Mark Antony rises to recall the Caesar he knew.
  He was, Mark Antony said, a man who loved his country so much he gave 
his life for it.
  Then he stunned the crowd by reading them Caesar's will. He had left 
all of his possessions to the people of Rome.
  Even more precious, he had left his fellow citizens a legacy of 
greatness and the ability, to quote Shakespeare, ``to walk abroad and 
recreate yourselves.''
  Ron Brown and the men and women on that plane died trying to recreate 
the American spirit of democracy and opportunity in a land torn apart 
by war.
  It is right that we offer these tributes to them. But, in the end, 
the best tribute we can pay them is to keep alive their determination 
to recreate what is best about America wherever people long for freedom 
and justice and opportunity.
  Let us today rededicate ourselves to that noble cause.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia is recognized.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wish to commend the distinguished 
Democrat leader for his remarks. I would like to ask unanimous consent 
that I might add just a few comments of my own.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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