[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 6 (Wednesday, February 4, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H306-H307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE RONALD V. DELLUMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lucas). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. Watt of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I have neither the eloquence 
or the thoughtfulness to find the right words to express my feelings 
for my colleague, Ron Dellums, who is leaving this House this week. How 
does one say ``thank you'' to someone who has had their phones tapped, 
who has been subjected to experiences in committee, on the floor, that 
we could not now imagine as Members of Congress?
  About 15 years ago, when I was not involved in Federal politics at 
all, to the extent I had any involvement in politics it was at the 
local or State level, most of my time was being spent making a living 
learning how to practice law, someone invited me to attend in 
Washington a Congressional Black Caucus weekend. It was at that weekend 
that Ron Dellums was the keynote speaker. He spoke for about 45, 50 
minutes, and the entire audience never uttered a peep. It was at that 
point that I started to admire and respect Ron Dellums.
  Fast forward to 1992 and imagine how it felt to me to be elected to 
Congress and to have the honor and privilege of serving with this 
powerful man; to have him come to me and say, I have heard you speak on 
the floor and I like your passion, when I had admired his passion for 
so many years; to receive from him constructive suggestions about how 
to be an effective Member of Congress; to receive from him constructive 
suggestions about how to express myself on the floor, when I had heard 
him be one of the few people who could rise on the floor of Congress 
and actually change opinions of his colleagues during the course of a 
debate.

[[Page H307]]

 Those are the things that I am indebted to Ron Dellums for.
  But my respect goes beyond that. My admiration goes beyond that, 
because Ron has been willing to share with people and to spend time 
with young people. I will never, ever forget eating lunch in one of the 
House facilities here with my son and a friend of his from his college 
class. We had almost finished eating when Ron entered the dining room, 
and Ron came over and sat down with us as we were about to leave, we 
thought. And about an hour later he was still mesmerizing these two 
college students with stories about how he had gotten involved in 
politics, how he had come to understand the principles and commitment 
that one has to make to gain the respect and admiration of others, and 
how he valued the opportunity to serve his constituents and the people 
of America.
  There is nobody in this body that I admire and respect more than I 
admire and respect Ron Dellums. I am going to miss him immensely. It 
has been wonderful over the last several days to hear the tributes that 
have been made to Ron Dellums and to learn more and more about this 
powerful, beautiful man.
  I wish him well. I wish him success in everything that he endeavors. 
I understand the circumstances under which he is leaving this body, and 
I hope that he will have much success with those circumstances. I just 
simply want to take this moment to express my respect and admiration 
for this powerful, powerful man.

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