[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 125 (Thursday, September 18, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S9531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The guest Chaplain, Rabbi Mell Hecht, Temple Beth Am, Las Vegas, NV, 
offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray.
  Heavenly Lord of us all, You have taught us the necessity of 
governing by law, yet we have also learned that law is meant to be in 
the service of humanity, not humanity to law, for just as Your law 
helps in Tikkun Olam, in the repair of a broken world, so should our 
law help mend the broken spirits and broken places of our land. In the 
process of fulfilling such a mandate, the collective ethic which 
permeates this American experiment of ours has come to oppose slavery 
in any form, including slavery to those laws, policies, or procedures 
which may no longer speak to the challenges of our time and 
circumstance.
  We are about to embark on a journey through another century, so we 
ask, Lord, may we approach the turn of our century in the same spirit 
that our Founding Fathers and mothers approached theirs, by believing 
in our hearts, as Thomas Paine advised, that we have it in our power to 
begin the world over again, to which we add: To make it infinitely 
better than it was before we entered it, to build toward an even 
greater freedom and justice in ways never dreamed of before, and to 
embrace those of our citizens who have yet to share in liberty's 
bounty, as is their inalienable right.
  We pray, therefore, that our deliberations and decisions transcend 
the limits of political concerns to evolve statutes and ordinances, 
laws and commandments which serve the people and provide for the 
humanity. May they be laws which enhance justice and which help to 
establish an everlasting peace both within the hearts of as well as 
among the inhabitants of our land.
  May future generations look back upon the work fostered and initiated 
by us who will be their ancestors as we have looked to and built upon 
the accomplishments of our Founding Fathers and mothers. May they come 
to praise us for expanding their freedom, their liberty, their 
opportunity for material and spiritual well-being, bringing ever nearer 
the longed-for day of Thy kingdom on Earth. In whatever name we pray, 
let us say Amen.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hutchinson). The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent I be allowed to 
speak out of order and my time not be charged against the Senator from 
Texas for her 20 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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