[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 82 (Thursday, June 12, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5647-S5648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FAREWELL TO THE SENATE PAGES
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, my attention has just been called to the
fact that this is the last day in which we will all be blessed by the
services rendered to all Senators on both sides of the aisle by these
wonderful young people who sit on the dais, to our right and to our
left, who are the pages. Daniel Webster appointed the first page.
Tomorrow, these pages will graduate. They go to school while they do
this work here for us and for our country. They work for our country,
just as we Senators seek to do our best in serving our country. Without
these pages, we would find our work to be more difficult, and we can't
thank them enough.
They get up early and they go to school. They have to continue to
maintain good grades while they are doing the Senate's work. And this
is demanding work. They run here, they run there. They are at the beck
and call of every Senator all day long.
Tennyson said, ``I am a part of all that I have met.'' I hope these
young pages, when they go back to their homes and to their communities
[[Page S5648]]
throughout the country, will take with them, as I know they will, a
part of us, as we will keep with us a part of them.
I take occasion to talk with these young people every now and then. I
have told them some stories over the days and weeks. I have told them
the story of ``The House with the Golden Windows.'' I have told them
Tolstoy's story, ``How Much Land Does a Man Need?'' And then I related
to them a story that was told by Russell Conwell, one of the early
Chautauqua speakers, which he had related 5,000 times--the story titled
``Acres of Diamonds.'' And, of course, there have been other stories.
But I have found the pages to be so eager--eager to learn, eager to
serve.
I think we can all be proud of our young people. We hear sometimes
about the bad apples, and there are a few bad apples around. The
problem is, they crowd out our view of the good apples. Most of our
young people are wholesome, fine young people. They are working in the
school rooms, the libraries, the laboratories, and seeking to develop
their minds. Perhaps we don't hear as much of them. But they are the
future citizens of this country, the great resource of the country. And
one day, they will be the chemists, the architects, the teachers, the
ministers, the lawyers, the Senators. I know, I have seen that gleam in
their eyes. Some of them are thinking about coming back here already--
as Senators.
I hope that we Senators have conducted ourselves in a way that will
make the pages feel proud of us--proud that you have had the honor and
the good fortune to serve here, because it is an honor and you have
been fortunate. There are millions of young people throughout this
country who would love to serve as pages in the Senate. So I hope that
we have, in some way, inspired you to serve and to want to learn. I
hope that you will continue to learn. Always seek to excel, to be the
best at whatever you are doing. There is always a place for you at the
top.
Unfortunately, not too many people want to start at the bottom
anymore. But you should be willing to start at the bottom and seek to
excel and to learn. In due time, you will be rewarded. Solon said, ``I
grow old in the pursuit of learning.'' So continue to learn all of your
lives.
We praise the great athletes, but no ballgame ever changed the course
of history. Study math, science, chemistry, physics, read well; and in
due time, you will contribute to your community and to your country.
A careful man I want to be, a little fellow follows me.
I do not dare to go astray, for fear he will go the self
same way.
He thinks that I am good and fine, believes in every word
of mine.
The base in me he must not see, that little chap that
follows me.
I must remember as I go, through summer's sun and winter's
snow,
I am building for the years to be, that little chap that
follows me.
That is the way we feel about you. Most of us, certainly, have
children and grandchildren, and you are somebody's children and
somebody's grandchildren, and we know that they are proud of you.
I took a piece of plastic clay,
And idly fashioned it one day.
And as my fingers pressed it still,
It moved and yielded to my will.
I came again when days were past,
The bit of clay was hard at last.
The form I gave it, it still bore,
And I could change that form no more.
I took a piece of living clay,
And gently formed it day by day.
And molded with my power and art,
A young child's soft and yielding heart.
I came again when years were gone,
He was a man I looked upon.
He still that early impress wore,
And I could change him nevermore.
As I look back across the 80 years of my life, I have lived a full
life, and it seems that it was only a little while ago when I was
young, like the boys and girls who are our pages. Even then, I wanted
to learn all that I could cram into my head, and I wanted to make
something of myself, and to be somebody when I grew up to be a man. I,
too, like you, had dreams of all the future years, of what I would do
in the days to come.
Ah, how great it is to believe the dream,
As we stand in youth by the starlit stream,
But greater still to live life through,
And find at the end that the dream is true.
One thing, finally, I want to leave with you. Always take God with
you. I have lived beyond the psalmist's promise.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten. and if
by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their
strength, labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we
fly away.
I have lived almost 80 years and I have seen times when I have felt
God was near me and listening to me, and you will see those times, too.
There will be times in your lives when you will be walking in deep
valleys, and you may walk in crowds, but there will be someone closer
than the crowd to you. There may be no one else around you, but there
is someone with whom you can communicate, someone who will share your
grief, and someone who will give you strength, someone who will help
lift you up from under great burdens, and that someone is the Heavenly
Father. No man is good. We all fall short of the glory of God. But
there is a God up there.
Look at the stars tonight, if the skies are clear, and see God's
wonderful handiwork. And remember that some of those stars are so far
away that the light from them has been traveling millions of light-
years--millions of light-years, that some of those stars are so large
that they would not be able to pass between the Sun and the Earth. The
Sun is 93 million miles away. Yet there are stars so huge that they
could not pass between the Earth and the Sun.
Napoleon, as he sat listening to the discussions about material
things on the deck of a ship one night, pointed upward and said, ``Say
what you wish. Who made all of that?''
So you will come across doubters and skeptics and cynics. But you can
trust in God. Remember, there are great physicists, great scientists,
men and women who have earned degrees from the higher institutions of
learning, but they know that there is a hand greater than the hand of
man that has created the Earth and the universe--the universes. Keep
your faith in Him.
These are the little random thoughts that I have, as we say goodbye
to you tomorrow. We will always wish for you these things: work for
your hands, a straight path for your feet, sunshine on your windowpane
in the morning, a song in your treetop at evening, soft rains for your
garden, happiness in your hearts, love at your firesides, and God's
blessings always.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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