[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 159 (Wednesday, November 12, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WALTER CAPPS WAS A JOYOUS MAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 12, 1997

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, on October 28 the House of Representatives 
lost an extraordinary Member. That loss was felt here, and it was felt 
across the country. Earlier in October the gentleman from California, 
Mr. Capps, had visited this Member's home State of Nebraska and the 
city of Omaha, where he was born and grew up. Not surprisingly, 
Nebraskans responded enthusiastically to his warm and generous spirit. 
This Member commends to his colleagues the piece by Roger Bergman which 
appeared in the Omaha World-Herald on November 8, 1997.

              [From the Omaha World-Herald, Nov. 8. 1997]

                    Walt Capps ``Was a Joyous Man''

                           (By Roger Bergman)

       Even as the lights were coming back on in our house and 
     around Omaha on Oct. 28, another kind of light was being 
     extinguished. Our friend--really a member of the family--
     Congressman Walter Capps was dead. He suffered a heart attack 
     in Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C.
       It seemed impossible that someone so vital--so full of life 
     and with so much to offer--could be claimed by darkness so 
     suddenly, so unexpectedly, so early. Even at 63, even after 
     barely surviving a head-on collision with a drunken driver 
     more than a year ago, Walt Capps was not someone you expected 
     to die. My wife, Dr. Wendy M. Wright, a Creighton University 
     theology professor for whom Capps was an intimate friend and 
     mentor, expressed it well: ``He was such a joyous man.''
       During his recent visit to his native Omaha to attend 
     family and high school reunions and to speak at his boyhood 
     church and at Creighton University, Walt remarked to me that 
     no less a figure in Western civilization than St. Augustine 
     had written both ``The Confessions'' and ``The City of God,'' 
     respectively classics of spiritual autobiography and 
     political theology.
       A longtime and influential professor of religious studies 
     at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Capps was 
     elected to the U.S. House of Representatives less than a year 
     ago. As he said in his lecture Oct. 12 at Creighton, he was 
     trying in his own way and however modestly to bridge the gap 
     between spiritual values and the concerns of public life. 
     That an accomplished scholar and master of the lecture hall 
     would even consider such a challenge at the time in a career 
     when most of us would be thinking of retirement attests to 
     his insatiable thirst for life generally and to his faith in 
     the democratic ideal specifically.
       It was also Augustine who proclaimed that a Christian 
     should be an ``alleluia from head to foot.'' Walter Capps was 
     such a man.
       And his joy in life and hope for America in a time of 
     cynicism about politics was infectious. After spending the 
     evening of Oct. 12 listening to the congressman speak 
     enthusiastically of the quality of people he was getting to 
     know in Washington and of the genuine care and concern of so 
     many elected officials and their often young and idealistic 
     staffs to do the right thing, one Creighton political science 
     professor remarked that she had not felt so hopeful about 
     Congress for years. Although 15 years my senior, Walt, with 
     an almost boyish verve for an overwhelmingly difficult job, 
     made me feel somewhat jaded by comparison.
       Perhaps some of Walt Capps' hopefulness came from the 
     healing and reconciliation he saw taking place in his course 
     on the Vietnam War. Vets who had never told their stories 
     before were invited to share the podium with him. Students 
     whose fathers were unknown to them personally were sent as 
     emissaries of the class to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington 
     to touch those precious names on the black marble. Sen. Bob 
     Kerrey, Nebraska's then-governor, took an active role in the 
     class for years, becoming a close friend to Capps and 
     mentoring him into political life.
       Capps quoted Kerrey in his lecture at Creighton. Politics 
     is often defined as the art of compromise. But Kerrey, 
     reported Capps, described politics as the art of the 
     possible.
       The congressman's own philosophy corresponded well with 
     that. Especially after his near-fatal crash in 1996, he said 
     he woke up every morning just grateful for the new day and 
     the opportunities it offered.
       He approached his legislative role in Washington in the 
     same spirit: Whatever small advance I can help to make for 
     the general welfare of the people of this country, let me be 
     ready to do it. Not a bad philosophy for the rest of us.
       Of Capps' 14 books, the most recent was on the Czech 
     playwright and president, Vaclav Havel, another fine 
     intellect who responded to the call of public service. 
     Havel's most recent book is titled ``The Art of the 
     Impossible.'' Walter would have appreciated that perspective 
     on self-government, too. One of his own books was 
     significantly titled, ``Hope Against Hope.''
       But Walt Capps was not merely a dreamer. He wanted to make 
     a difference. And so he put up with the arduous demands of 
     the campaign trail (and the insults of his opponent, which he 
     did not return) and the daily frustrations of an idealist in 
     the powerbrokering world of the national capital. If he 
     tilted at windmills, it was only after being sure it was for 
     the good of his own constituents and the country generally.
       Like a combination of Don Quixote, St. Augustine, and 
     Vaclav Havel, our friend Walter Capps dreamed a possible 
     dream. He believed that citizens could govern themselves 
     despite deep moral and ideological disagreements. Perhaps 
     felled by the strenuous schedule that belief demanded of him 
     as a citizen-representative, Walt Capps is a reminder to all 
     of us that democracy has no sidelines.
       Professor Capps--he took a leave of absence from his 
     university post rather than give it up entirely--had a more 
     personal dream, too. After several terms in Congress, he 
     wanted to return to the University of California at Santa 
     Barbara to teach about democracy.
       Democracy, he said, is not something we inherit as a 
     lifeless monument from the past. It is something we create 
     and recreate every day. Or at least that is the challenge.
       He will not be able to fulfill that personal dream--to the 
     loss of all of us, but especially to those UCSB students who 
     will know of him only by reputation. My wife and I are 
     immensely grateful that our children, his godchildren, were 
     touched by his life.
       But like the image of a flame that lingers in the mind's 
     eye even after the wick has been snuffed, Walter Capps' 
     joyous, hopeful, generous spirit will linger long after his 
     life has gone out.
       May he rest in peace. And may the rest of us get to work.

       

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