[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 144 (Monday, October 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S12356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              COLUMBUS DAY

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I wish to pay tribute to the Chaplain for 
his very fine prayer in opening the Senate today. I think Christopher 
Columbus would be proud of us. We are doing the business of the Nation 
that he discovered, and we honor Italian Americans today for all of 
their contributions.
  I don't think there is a place in the Nation where the cause for 
celebration is more lively or more deeply felt than in my State of 
Massachusetts, where sons and daughters of Italian immigrants have made 
such an extraordinary contribution in so many different aspects of 
life. We honor those brave Italian Americans who faced the seas and 
struggled for their existence, for their deep-seated commitment to 
family and to their religion and for their sense of optimism and hope 
in coming here to the United States. I think we honor them best by 
being about the business of working families today on Columbus Day and 
in the final hours of this Congress.
  Mr. President, I would like to reserve about the last minute and a 
half of my time, if I might.




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