[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 20, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8862-S8864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   REFLECTIONS ON THE DEATH OF JOHN F. KENNEDY JR., CAROLYN BESSETTE 
                      KENNEDY AND LAUREN BESSETTE

  Mr. DASCHLE. Like so many of us, I listened all weekend long to the 
news reports, and held onto hope long past the point when it was 
reasonable to do so.
  I wanted so much for there to be a different ending--for John F. 
Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and her sister Lauren to somehow, 
miraculously, have survived. So like people all across our Nation, all 
across the world, I kept a vigil.
  Then, Sunday night, the Coast Guard announced that the rescue mission 
had become a recovery mission.
  Today, our thoughts and prayers are with the Kennedy and Bessette 
families. We pray that God will comfort them and help them bear this 
grief that must seem unbearable now. We offer our sympathies, as well, 
to the many friends of John Kennedy, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and 
Lauren Bessette. They, too, have suffered a great loss.
  I want my friend, Senator Edward Kennedy, John's uncle, to know, as I 
have told him personally, we are praying for him.
  Just last week, Senator Kennedy stood on this floor and spoke about 
people who had died too young, and the heartbroken families they had 
left behind. He urged us to pass real patient protections so other 
families would not have to experience that same pain.
  Today, once again, it is Senator Kennedy's family, along with the 
Bessette family, who are experiencing the pain of death that comes far 
too soon.
  More than a century ago, the great New England poet, Emily Dickinson, 
sent a letter to a friend who had lost someone very dear. ``When not 
inconvenient to your heart,'' she wrote, ``please remember us, and let 
us help you carry [your grief], if you grow tired.''
  I know I speak for many of us when I say to Senator Kennedy: Please--
if there is any way--let us help you carry your grief, if you grow 
tired. You and your family have given our Nation so much. Let us--if we 
can--give something back to you.
  All weekend, I watched the news. Over and over again, I saw that 
heartbreaking image of the little boy saluting his father's coffin. 
Then came the announcement that the little boy was gone, too. And just 
when I thought I finally understood the magnitude of the loss, I 
listened to the news again this morning, and I heard friends of John F. 
Kennedy, Jr. say they felt certain he would have run for public office 
one day--probably for a seat in the United States Senate.
  I don't know if that is true. I do know that John F. Kennedy, Jr. 
believed deeply in public service. He believed what his father had 
said: ``to those whom much is given, much is required.'' If he had 
chosen to run for the Senate, I have no doubt he would have succeeded, 
and he would have been a great Senator.
  I suspect we will regret for a long, long time what John Kennedy did 
not have time to give us. I hope we will also remember, and treasure, 
what he did have time to give us. Those moments of joy when he was a 
little boy playing in the Oval Office with his sister and father; his 
stunning example of courage when he said good-bye to his father.
  I hope we will remember:
  His kindness and surprising humility; his inventiveness, and his 
professional success; the good humor and amazing grace with which he 
accepted celebrity; the dignity with which he bore his sorrows; and the 
happiness he found in his life, particularly in his marriage.

  Some years ago, another young man died too young. Alex Coffin, the 
son of Reverend William Sloane Coffin, was driving in a terrible storm 
when his car plunged into Boston Harbor and he drowned. He was 24 years 
old. Ten days later, William Sloane Coffin spoke about Alex's death to 
his parishioners

[[Page S8863]]

at Riverside Church in New York City. I want to read a short section of 
his sermon, because I think it bears repeating today.
  The one thing no one should ever say about Alex's death--or the death 
of any young person--is that it is God's will. ``No one,'' Reverend 
Coffin said, ``knows enough to say that . . . . God doesn't go around 
this world with his finger on triggers, his fist around knives, his 
hands on steering wheels. God is dead set against all unnatural deaths 
. . . . My own consolation lies in knowing that . . . when the waves 
closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our 
hearts to break.''
  None of us knows why John Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and 
Lauren Bessette were taken from us in the prime of their lives. We 
don't know why the Kennedy family has had to endure so much sorrow over 
so many years. Nor do we know why the Bessette family has to suffer 
such an incomprehensibly huge loss all at once. What we do know is that 
the hearts of the Kennedys and the Bessettes were not the only hearts 
that broke when the waves closed over that sinking plane last Friday 
night. We are all heartbroken by the deaths of three such remarkable 
young people.
  Not long ago, I came across a book of poems by another man who also 
lost a young son. The man's name is David Ray. His son's name was Sam. 
Sam also died, at 19, also in a car accident. After Sam's death, his 
father wrote a whole series of poems to him, and about him. I'd like to 
read a very short one; it's called ``Another Trick of the Mind.''

     Out of a book, a little trick--
     Instead of the picture and much longing
     for that lost face,
     place yourself within the frame.
     You are back together again, if only
     in the past, or in the dream,
     or this gilded picture in mind.
     But it is no longer a dream, or a picture
     of loss. And then you go on,
     down the road you have to go, together.

  In our memories, we all have a scrapbook full of images of John 
Kennedy, Jr. Perhaps in the days ahead, when the sadness creeps up on 
us, we can imagine--just for a moment--that John and Carolyn and Lauren 
are still with us. And we can go down the road we have to go, together. 
And maybe when we play that trick on ourselves, and our sadness lifts 
for that moment, we can remember how fortunate we were to have had them 
with us as long as we did.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. MACK addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. MACK. Mr. President, I rise to speak for just a moment to express 
my profound sympathy and condolences to our colleague and friend, 
Senator Ted Kennedy, and the members of the Kennedy family, and for the 
Bessette family, as well.
  Although I know the pain of losing a loved one, I have little 
conception of the pain which Senator Kennedy and his family are feeling 
with the multiple losses of family members at such early stages in 
their lives, and under such tragic conditions.
  My heart is heavy with grief for the family, and my thoughts and 
prayers are with them. I can only pray that they realize and are 
comforted in some small manner by the love, affection, and support of 
the Members of this body, as well as people all across this nation, for 
whom the Kennedy family is a symbol of courage, achievement, and 
service to mankind.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wish to speak with regard to the 
feelings in my heart and in the hearts of my daughter Mary, my daughter 
Virginia, and my son John on behalf of the Kennedy family.
  My daughter Mary was a member of the play group at the White House 
formed by the President and his lovely wife Jacqueline Kennedy for 
their daughter Caroline and, my recollection is, three or four others 
of the same age. They were perhaps among the most photographed young 
people in America at that time. Our family cherishes the pictures with 
Caroline and in some John-John was there. It was just a warm experience 
for these youngsters to start their life.
  Jacqueline Kennedy was so gracious to all of us in our family. I had 
known Mrs. Kennedy when I was, my recollection is, in my early 
twenties, and we were in the same group of young people who mingled 
together at various events in those days. I remember the absolute 
startling beauty of that magnificent woman. We remained friends 
throughout her life. She and the President briefly had a farm in 
Virginia which abutted on the farm that my then-wife Catherine and I 
had, and I frequently saw her at sporting events.
  The families were intertwined at a very young age. Previously, at the 
University of Virginia Law School, while my period at that school was 
interrupted by service in the Marines during the Korean war, Bobby 
Kennedy was there, and we overlapped for a period of time. I remember 
participating in some of the touch football games and getting my first 
insight into that extraordinary family.
  My daughter Virginia knew John-John quite well. In past years, prior 
to marriage, they were in the same group that often attended events 
together.
  This has left a very deep and sad feeling in the hearts of my 
children, and I know they would want their deepest sympathy conveyed to 
the members of the family. I do that tonight, being privileged to be on 
the floor of the Senate and talking about this most distinguished 
family.
  I met President Kennedy on several occasions. I knew him, as a matter 
of fact, when he was a Senator. I remember very well one night going to 
a television studio with him and some other people. I cannot recall 
exactly what the show was, but that night, for various reasons, is 
tucked away in my memory.
  Then, of course, in the campaign of 1960, I was the advance man for 
President Nixon; and Bobby Kennedy was the advance man for his brother. 
We had frequent but always pleasant and cordial meetings on the 
campaign trail of 1960.
  But the main purpose of my taking the floor is to express, on behalf 
of my children, our profound sorrow for this tragic event, and how we 
are all deprived of what I think in our hearts we believe would have 
been a great future for this young man, had the Lord seen fit to have 
him remain with us. He was destined to go on to greatness, and we, as a 
nation, have been deprived. But we accept the Lord's will in this case.
  All that could be done was done, primarily by the Coast Guard, the 
Navy, the National Transportation Safety Board, and others. I think 
they are worthy of commendation for their services.
  To our distinguished colleague, Senator Kennedy, I know, having 
spoken with him, he was looking forward to this wedding. So often this 
family has come together in hours of tragedy, but this wedding was to 
be an hour of pure joy. He looked forward to it with expectation. But 
now, of course, that has to be postponed, I hope for a brief period.
  But I remember how hard the Senator worked on the Patients' Bill of 
Rights. I voted against him on every vote except one, and that has 
often been the case in my 21 years in the Senate serving with my 
friend. And we have had many opportunities to work together on various 
things. He is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which 
I am privileged to be chairman. When I was ranking member on the 
Seapower Subcommittee, he was chairman; and then for a brief period, 
when I was chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee, he was ranking 
member.
  But I remember how hard he worked last week. His heart was in that 
bill regarding the health of the citizens of our Nation. It was just 
another chapter in his long and distinguished career in the Senate.
  I believe on both sides of the aisle he is regarded as one of the 
hardest working, most conscientious Members of the Senate. We have 
nothing but profound respect for him and the manner in which he, as one 
of the heads of this distinguished family, has worked to bring this 
family once again to the realization of a loss that they must accept.
  Mr. President, we conclude today's proceedings by several of us 
speaking on this. We do so from the heart and convey our prayers and 
sympathy to this family.
  Mr. THOMPSON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. THOMPSON. I thank the Chair.

[[Page S8864]]

  I join in the expressions of my colleagues in expressing my profound 
sadness and regret at the fate that has befallen our colleague and 
members of his and the Bessette family.

                          ____________________