[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 28, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9098-S9099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO JOHN GIBSON AND JACOB CHESTNUT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, much has been said on the Senate and the 
House floor about John Gibson and Jacob ``J.J.'' Chestnut, two police 
officers on the Capitol Police Force. And much more will be said. I add 
my words of praise and appreciation to both of them.
  I knew both these police officers. Officer Chestnut--J.J.--would see 
us come through the Senate at several different times, and he would 
tell me a member of my family has already gone through because he had 
seen them, or conversely, if they came through he would tell them where 
I was.
  Detective Gibson traveled with many of us at different occasions. He 
even came to one, I believe, with the ``Singing Senators'' from the 
other side of the aisle. He was the man who at events where Senators 
would gather, would be there because he would recognize not only the 
Senators, but their spouses; would wave them on through, would greet 
them, would make them know they were among friends. We always knew we 
were.
  Mr. President, I have been a Senator now for nearly 24 years. I walk 
into this building every day that we are in session, many when we are 
not. I have gotten to know many of the police officers, and so many 
others, the hundreds of people that make this body run, make this 
Capitol run.
  This truly is a death in the family.
  Even if I had not known the officers as I did, I would feel that way. 
But knowing them in some ways makes it even sadder, more poignant, more 
difficult.
  I love the Senate and I love the symbol of democracy that our Capitol 
holds to the public. To see this terrible, terrible thing happen in 
something that means so much to all of us, it is almost impossible to 
describe my feelings.
  My wife and I had flown to Vermont last Friday. We got to my office 
in Burlington and were there only a matter of minutes and heard the 
news. Much of the rest of the evening was a blur, just sitting in our 
farmhouse watching the news and not believing it.
  Probably the greatest tribute to two brave police officers was the 
fact that this Capitol, this symbol of democracy not only to our own 
Nation of a quarter of a billion people but to the rest of the world, 
this Capitol was open almost immediately thereafter.
  There is no way we could bring these officers back. It is a tragedy 
that will be felt by their spouses and their children, in one case, 
grandchildren, for the rest of their lives. No matter what we do as 
Members of the Senate or the House, we cannot bring them back to their 
families. We can only offer our profound sympathy to their families. It 
is a sympathy that is felt deeply by every single Member of the 
Congress, Republican or Democrat. It makes no difference whether they 
have been here a long time or a short time. Our hearts go out as human 
beings to the families of these officers.
  What we have done in immediately reopening the Capitol, in saying to 
the public today they can walk in here at any time as they do in the 
galleries today, we are saying to those officers that your deaths were 
not in vain. Think, Mr. President, what a different country this would 
be if somehow this Capitol, this symbol of democracy, was closed down. 
Think what it would be like if the public, not only Americans but those 
visiting from around the world, think what it would be like if

[[Page S9099]]

they could not come into this Capitol, as I did when I was a law 
student here in Washington or when I first came here with my parents as 
a teenager. If we could not be here, the public could not come in and 
see us debate great matters and tiny matters, they could not see that.
  Mr. President, at the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union, I 
remember so many who came here and met with all of us and asked, ``How 
does your democracy work,'' and they told me--I heard this over and 
over again--that they would see the picture of our Capitol when they 
came to Washington, that was the thing they recognized before anything 
else. They said they saw it sitting up here.
  I have been coming to this Capitol Building as a Senator for 24 
years. I feel a thrill every time I come up here. I hope I always will 
because I know it represents democracy. These two brave officers, just 
like the hundreds of other men and women who guard these Halls, they 
keep it open. Let's hope they always will. Let us hope that we always 
have the courage to do that. Then the lives that every one of us would 
pray we could bring to the family, those lives would not be lost in 
vain.
  Like some others in this body, I had the privilege to serve in law 
enforcement for years before coming here. I know how all of us felt in 
law enforcement at that time if one of our own was cut down. I think if 
you have not served in law enforcement it is almost impossible to 
explain to the American public how other law enforcement officials feel 
when they lose one of their own. I know how the men and women in the 
police force here on Capitol Hill feel, but also how they feel all over 
the Nation. This is a loss. This is a family, a fraternity, a sorority. 
It is something that binds all law enforcement people together.
  I am joined with every single person who works on Capitol Hill in an 
expression of appreciation to them and to everybody who responded--all 
the police officers responded, medical personnel responded. I will take 
just 1 minute more to express my personal appreciation to Senator Bill 
Frist for what he did. I spoke with Senator Frist yesterday and told 
him how much his actions meant to me, to my wife, who is a registered 
nurse. She knows when something like this happens, if you are a medical 
personnel, you respond. But he responded not only with his great skill 
as a cardiac surgeon, he responded when there was gunfire erupting only 
moments before and there might have been more, with no thought to his 
safety, but thinking of only those who may have been injured.
  Mr. President, it is a sad day. Let us say also it is a proud day to 
our country because this symbol of democracy will not be closed down by 
the actions of one deranged American, any more than it was in the 1980s 
when the bomb went off outside this Chamber at night just minutes after 
we recessed. I remember so well the next morning, every single one of 
us was in our seats. We were here to show we wouldn't stay home. And we 
will be here today, as will the President and the Vice President, all 
of the House and Senate leadership, and the Members, to show nothing 
closes us down.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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