[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 18 (Thursday, February 8, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1208-S1213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A TRIBUTE TO SENATOR ALAN CRANSTON
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is with great sadness that I rise today
to pay tribute to our friend and colleague Alan Cranston. His death on
December 31 last year was a shock. Alan was such a life force that it
is hard for me to imagine his silence and his not being there for great
arms control debates.
Senator Cranston was a man of conviction, a true humanitarian in
every sense of those words. He began his career in public policy in the
1930s as a journalist warning his readers of the dangerous rise of
fascism. He knew even then that the United States was locked in an
intricate web of relations with the rest of the world and that our
attempts to ignore that web could only lead to calamity for ourselves
and those around us. Alan understood the concept of globalization at
least 50 years before it gained such notoriety to earn a name.
It was primarily that impulse to engage the world that brought Alan
into elective office and eventually to the United States Senate. As
State of California Controller from 1958 to 1967, he worked to
rationalize the booming state's finances and ensure that all
Californians could benefit from that phenomenal rise.
But it was in the Senate where Alan could most effectively work
toward his vision of a peaceable world. Before the people of California
sent him here in 1968, he learned about the Senate's moderating
influence and the consequences of its shirking that role. In his post-
World War ``Killing of the Peace,'' Alan explained how the U.S.
Senate's defeat of the League of Nations contributed to the outbreak of
that war and the horrible events that followed.
Most of his activities during his impressive 24 years here were an
expression of his deep desire for the Senate to avoid similar mistakes.
He brought a special seriousness of purpose and attentiveness to arms
control issues as diverse as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and
ongoing production of the B-2 Stealth Bomber. On several occasions, I
joined him in opposing the production of new, destabilizing types of
nuclear weapons, and I was always struck by Alan's sense of nuance and
willful resolve.
Alan was not one to ignore his own personal responsibilities to the
Senate. As Democratic Whip, Alan made this body run efficiently. If
there is anyone who was never afraid to count the votes, it was Alan.
He knew how to smoke us out on our intentions. What made him so
effective was his persuasive argumentation and downright persistence.
Sometimes he could change my mind faster than he could run a 100-yard
dash, which was pretty fast considering he was a lifelong record-
setting sprinter.
It was unsurprising that after his Senate career he led the non-
profit Global Security Institute where he continued to press from arms
control initiatives. The Institute provided a perfect platform from
which he could promote his expanded notion of security. After the Cold
War, Alan realized before everyone else that security no longer meant
merely protection from weapons of mass destruction. He saw that
security in the new millennium was also about avoiding environmental
degradation, securing our food supply, and educating our children.
Alan was a forward-thinker and an alternative voice at a time when
conventional wisdom demanded examination. He worked to make our world
safer, and he was a good friend. I will miss him greatly.
THE ALAN CRANSTON I KNEW: INTENSITY, INTEGRITY, AND COMMITMENT
Mr. BIDEN. A couple of weeks ago I had the sad duty to travel to
California
[[Page S1209]]
to represent the Senate and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a
memorial service for Senator Alan MacGregor Cranston. It was a moving
ceremony, a chance for all those in attendance to rededicate themselves
to the noble goals which shaped Alan Cranston's life.
Alan Cranston will be remembered by those of us who knew and loved
him as a man of peace who devoted much of his adult life--four terms in
the Senate and a decade as director of the Global Security Institute--
to the tasks of promoting nuclear arms control and encouraging world
peace. These are not small objectives, but of course Alan Cranston's
interests extended beyond them, literally, ``. . . from the Redwood
Forests to the Gulf stream waters.'' Never content to sit on the
sidelines, Alan Cranston fought tirelessly for the causes in which he
believed: nuclear disarmament, the environment, civil rights, and
decent housing. He brought the intensity of a sprinter and the
endurance of a marathoner to each of these causes.
During his tenure as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee from 1981-1993, Alan Cranston was a devoted supporter of
strong U.S. leadership in the world, whether it meant promoting the
development of democracy in the Philippines and Cambodia or working to
halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
Alan Cranston knew that the United States could not go it alone in
the world. In an age when American unilateralism, if not isolationism,
has gained a certain currency in Washington, Alan Cranston's life
reminds us that the highest aspirations of the American people are
those which lead us to care about others and work with others to
address common problems.
The intensity, integrity, and commitment Alan Cranston brought to
public service stand as an example we all might follow as we begin work
in this 107th Congress.
Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent that a transcript of the
remarks made at Senator Cranston's memorial service be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Alan MacGregor Cranston Memorial Service, Grace Cathedral in San
Francisco, January 16th, 2001
The following friends and family took part in the
extraordinary memorial service of Alan MacGregor Cranston:
The Very Reverend Alan Jones, Dean, Grace Cathedral.
Colette Penne Cranston, daughter-in-law of Alan Cranston.
Kim Cranston, son of Alan Cranston.
Gray Davis, Governor of California.
Joseph Biden, US Senator from Delaware.
Ted Turner.
Sally Lilienthal, President, Ploughshares Fund.
William Turnage, former President, Wilderness Society.
James Hormel, former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg.
Harris Wofford, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.
Jane Goodall, Primatologist.
Cruz Reynoso, former Justice, California Supreme Court.
Jonathan Granoff, CEO, Global Security Institute.
The Very Reverend Alan Jones, Dean, Grace Cathedral.
Alan Jones. Good afternoon. I am Alan Jones, the Dean of
the Cathedral, and it is my privilege to welcome you to Grace
Cathedral for this celebration of the life of Alan MacGregor
Cranston.
It is fitting that such a large-hearted man be honored and
remembered in a soaring and splendid space.
There was a comment in the London Times about the public
reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. First, it
showed that our instinct for devotion is still deep within
us. Second, that huge emotions require huge spaces, like
cathedrals. And third, that the things we do in them are
always up for change.
And so I invite you first to allow the instinct for
devotion, the call of something and someone larger than
ourselves to well up in you this afternoon, and I think the
Senator would have applauded anything that called us out of
our cynicism and challenged us not to accept futility as
normal.
I invite you also to acknowledge that huge emotions require
huge spaces. We need great spaces and ways of celebration in
order to locate ourselves in a larger vision of the human
enterprise.
And finally I invite you to be open to that fact, the fact
that things we do in places like this are always up for
change. Life is never business as usual, and nothing would
have pleased Alan more than for us to leave this place
resolved to make a difference.
So, we welcome you to the Cathedral for this celebration of
the life of a man who held a large and generous vision of
what it is to be human.
Our best way to honor him is to share and maintain that
vision of a just and humane society on a planet fit for all
living beings.
So as you remain seated, I invite you to pray.
Dear God, we thank you for the life and the work of Alan
MacGregor Cranston. His generous spirit opened doors and
touched many lives for good. His faith in the human
enterprise inspired us to accept the great joy and
responsibility of being human. His political skills
ensured an enduring legacy.
He was friend to those who had no voice, and a lover of the
great spaces of the wilderness. His long life touched and was
touched by the great events of our time. He was a man for all
seasons.
In public life, he fought for what he believed with passion
and hard work. His caring, open-heartedness and his respect
for people touched the lives of many. His generous spirit
wanted everybody to do well, and this generosity was
infectious.
And so we thank you for his capacity for friendship, his
probing intelligence, and his refusal to be enticed into
meanness and pettiness.
Finally, we thank you for his life and example, and we
commend him into your gracious care. May we honor him by
rededicating ourselves to peace on Earth, and goodwill to all
people, and to building a more just and inclusive America.
Amen.
Colette Penne Cranston. Hello! I am Alan's daughter-in-law,
Colette. I am the first speaker because I need to be. Our
daughter has commented that I seem to have an endless supply
of tears. Since I was honored to have such a close, personal
relationship with Alan, I wanted to give you some insights
into his gentle, unwavering spirit. He was much more than my
father-in-law, he was my friend, my advisor and now and I
know he will love this he has become my Jiminy Cricket, that
little voice in my conscience that says, 'think before you
leap!'
Kim, Evan our seven-year-old daughter and I live right next
to Alan's on the same property. Alan's big sister, who we
call RE, lived up the hill from us until recently. This
arrangement was such a gift for everyone! Alan and Evan had
great sunset walks together, evenings of art work and stories
around the fire at his place, and dinner dates out just the
two of them. They would dress up and go to a restaurant,
often one with a piano player, and make an evening of it.
Evan called him ``Gran.'' One night when the two of them were
returning from a walk, Kim called me out to the balcony and
said, ``Listen!'' We could hear their voices but couldn't see
them yet. Alan was saying, ``Well, you know, Evan, I don't
know why that's true, but it is true dogs love to ride in
cars and cats don't.'' Just then they rounded the corner to
come up the driveway and they were holding hands.
A couple of years ago, the four of us spent three weeks in
the UK. Our first week in London, Alan was occupied with
meetings and a quick turn-around to Geneva, but the final two
weeks we toured the countryside with no particular itinerary
except to visit some relatives in Scotland and the grave of
Rob Roy MacGregor, an ancestor who Alan's middle name is
from. We also visited the graves of Alan and RE's great-
grandparents six generations back, whose tombstones were
leaning together and touching. Each evening before dinner,
Alan would tell Evan a story, some lasting forty-five
minutes. In the parlor of one bed and breakfast where we
stayed for three nights, other guests would join in to listen
and ask if they could come the next night to hear the
stories, they were that good.
One of the most important, and I believe, reassuring
lessons that we can take from Alan's life is that we do not
have to be limited in our later years. When we tell people
that Alan never retired, he never stopped working, they do
not really hear that. The truth is that he was the most
disciplined, diligent, and determined person I have ever met.
He was also still making friends with and inspiring young
people. Two such friends, a man in his thirties and a woman
in her forties, touched us with their expressions of personal
grief following Alan's death. The young men in their twenties
who work with Alan's Global Security Institute, Patrick Neal,
Zack Allen, and Tyler Stevenson, are bright and motivated and
will do great things in their own lives with memories of
Alan staying with them. Don't we all wish for a life of
impact and meaning and a quick, painless end surrounded by
those we love? He did most everything right!
I can, of course, remember a difficult time in Alan's
career. At the time I was in an elected position also, so I
was very interested in how he was handling it. As I watched
what was happening to him, I asked him, ``Alan, how can you
bear this?'' He answered, ``Colette, there are politics in
the locker room, the boardroom and the United States Senate.
Since you have to put up with them wherever you are, I want
to be in the Senate, where the politics are intense, but I
can get the most done.''
Over Thanksgiving, Alan and his sister took a week's
vacation together. He was working to finish his book on
sovereignty rather than just relaxing by the pool and she
said, ``you work too hard''. He replied, ``I want to stagger
across the finish line knowing I've done all I possibly
can!'' He did not stagger, he was still sprinting!
I want to close with a message from our seven-year-old
daughter, Evan. Her Brownie
[[Page S1210]]
troop leader read a story about loss that she said helped
her. It was about a badger who was the oldest and wisest
member of a community of animals. He knew that because of his
age, he might die soon. Dying meant only that he would leave
his body behind, and as his body didn't work as well as when
he was young, he wasn't too concerned about that. His only
worry was how his family and friends would feel. He died
before the start of a winter and the animals were very sad.
But as they thought about him they realized he had given them
each something to treasure: a parting gift of a skill or
piece of knowledge. Evan said, ``Didn't Gran help lots of
people and do lots of things to make the world better?'' I
said, ``Yes, he left behind countless parting gifts for all
of us to never forget!''
Kim Cranston. Thank you all for being here today to
celebrate Alan's life--yes, I too called him Alan.
In the program for this ceremony is the observation of the
Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu that Alan carried in his pocket
most of his life as a guide to the style of leadership he
practiced. It begins by observing that leaders are best when
people barely know that they exist, and concludes by
observing that of the best leader, when his work is done and
his aim fulfilled, the people will all say, ``we did this
ourselves.''
In the world of modern politics in which name recognition
is so important, this approach to leadership presented an
interesting paradox for Alan, which is also present today as
we celebrate the accomplishments of his life.
I understand, however, that there is a little known
addendum to Lao-Tzu's observation that states that ``after
such a leader has passed on, people will join together to
mourn their loss, celebrate their accomplishments, and
recommit to the causes they shared.'' I welcome you here
today in that spirit.
Alan touched many people's lives in many different ways. We
all have stories we can tell about times we spent and things
we did with Alan to make the world a better place. This
afternoon we have time for just a few of Alan's friends and
collaborators to share some of their stories with us. I want
to invite each of you to join us after this ceremony at the
reception at the Fairmont Hotel where, in addition to having
the opportunity to catch up, laugh, and cry, there will be
video cameras so each of you can take a moment if you'd like
to tell your story.
My own story is simple. I was incredibly blessed to have
had Alan as a wonderful father, my dearest and oldest friend,
a treasured teacher and mentor, and an invaluable
collaborator and leader in addressing the great challenges of
our time.
It is almost unbearable for me to think we will never again
in this life share another meal, or football game, or joke or
prank, or afternoon discussing strategy.
I learned many, many things from Alan. Five stand out
today.
First, I learned about the subtle, profound power of the
style of leadership he practiced. In the past few days it's
been very enriching for me to reflect on Lao-Tzu's
observation of leadership and everything that Alan helped us
accomplish in his lifetime.
Second, I learned that the greatest meaning in life is
found in making the world a better place. As one of Alan's
heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr., observed ``Life's most
persistent and urgent question is ``What are you doing for
others?''
Third, I learned something Alan understood early on: We
live in one of the most extraordinary moments in human
history. In our lifetimes, for the first time since humans
have inhabited the earth, we have developed the capacity to
destroy human and perhaps all known life in the universe
forever, either through a sudden nuclear holocaust or the
more gradual destruction of the environment. Simultaneously,
we are developing the capacity to create sustainable and
economically just societies.
What those of us alive now do together may well determine
which of these two paths we take, and could help decide the
fate of the human race. There exists a small window of
opportunity for us to act. A window of opportunity that may
well not exist for the generations of our children or their
children. If humanity is to continue, if we are to prosper
rather than perish, we must transform our society and develop
effective approaches to resolve those challenges that we
share and can only address at the global level. This is the
task before our generation and it was to that end that Alan
devoted most of his working life.
The fourth lesson is that in view of all this it is
important to keep a sense of humor. Colette told me she'd
recently spoken with Alan about something someone had done
that affected them both, which she found very disturbing.
Colette asked Alan why it didn't seem to bother him as much
and he replied: ``I find that in situations like this I can
choose to be either terrified or amused.''
And the fifth lesson is to be compassionate to our fellow
living beings.
Of course, I learned a great deal more from Alan, but these
are the lessons foremost in my mind today.
While to many people Alan seemed a whirlwind of activity,
he was also a voracious reader and a prolific writer.
In 1945, he published ``The Killing of the Peace,'' which
detailed how a small group of people defeated Woodrow
Wilson's campaign to create the League of Nations to address
the global challenges we face, and which the New York Times
called one of the ten most important books of the year.
And just a few days before he passed on, Alan completed a
book--``The Sovereignty Revolution'' that begins with the
following passage:
It is worshiped like a god, and as little understood.
It is the cause of untold strife and bloodshed. Genocide is
perpetrated in its sacred name.
It is at once a source of power and of power's abuse, of
order and of anarchy. It can be noble and it can be shameful.
It is sovereignty.
I commend this book to you all and I'm happy to announce
today it will soon be available through, among other places,
the web site for the Global Security Institute
(www.gsinstitute.org), the nonprofit organization Alan
recently founded to advance his work to abolish nuclear
weapons and advance global security.
While we all miss Alan, we can take solace in knowing that
he fulfilled the purpose of making a difference with his life
and leaving the world a better place.
In closing, I want to thank you again for being here to
mourn the loss we all share, celebrate what we've
accomplished, and recommit to the causes that brought us
together. As Alan would say at the end of nearly all of his
speeches, I thank you for all you are doing and urge you
onward.
Thank you.
Gray Davis, At first I want to express the deep condolences
of my wife Sharon and I to Eleanor Cameron, Alan's sister, to
Kim, Colette, and to the extended Cranston family.
My friends, we come here today not just to mourn Alan
Cranston, but to honor him. We're greatly saddened by his
passing, but we're grateful for his extraordinary life and
the rich legacy he left behind.
Alan was a native Californian who grew up to be an
extraordinary public servant. He had a sharp intellect, a
humility of spirit, and a quality of compassion that is rare
in life and rarer still in public life. He was an
extraordinary person. Yes, he was a pragmatist who understood
that progress was a long struggle for common ground. But he
was also an idealist who believed that violence anywhere was
a threat to freedom everywhere.
He reminded us that there is a moral force in this world
more powerful than the mightiest of nations or the force of
arms. And one by one, he tackled the great issues of our
time: World peace; arms control; veterans' health;
environment. One by one, he made a difference.
For those of you fortunate enough to spend some time in the
Golden Gate National Recreational Area or the Santa Monica
Mountains or the desert lands that he protected, you know
what a difference he made. Future generations will
acknowledge their debt of gratitude to Alan Cranston, and it
is most appropriate that we thank him today.
Alan was also a very good politician. He ran every race
with the same focus and intensity that he learned running the
hundred-yard dash back at Stanford. He was almost always the
underdog. Critics dismissed his chances, saying he lacked the
charisma to win. But Alan proved time and again that in this
state character, not charisma, is what people want most.
He became only the second Californian to be elected four
times to the United States Senate--Hiram Johnson being the
first. He became the patron saint of every candidate for
office inflicted with a charisma deficit, myself included. He
is my personal hero.
Alan may have lacked charisma, but he was enormously
resourceful. Eleanor tells in her book the story of Alan's
first race for Controller in 1958. Alan knew someone who had
a television show in Los Angeles. But the host of the show
reminded Alan he was contractually obligated to talk about
contact lenses. He couldn't mention he was a candidate for
office and under no circumstances could he say he was a
Democrat. But as I said before, Alan was very resourceful. So
he went on the show just a few days before his election and
he said, ``My name is Alan Cranston. I'm running up and down
the state making contacts and jumping in front of lenses. I
am Alan Cranston.'' The viewing audience didn't have a clue
what he was talking about. But he mentioned the name Alan
Cranston eight times. And even though he'd never been elected
to public office before, he was elected Controller of the
State of California. So Alan knew what he was talking about.
Finally my friends, Alan Cranston was part of the World War
II generation. A generation that Tom Brokaw has aptly
described as our ``Greatest Generation.'' A generation from
which much was asked and a great deal was given. A generation
that went to Europe and stood down Adolf Hitler's Nazi
regime, rescued the survivors of the Holocaust, and literally
saved democracy as we know it today.
It was a generation that came home with no expectation of
recognition and went about rebuilding a new America. A
generation that built roads, hospitals and businesses, and
paved the way for the digital economy, although most did not
live to enjoy it. A generation that did their duty, and then
came home.
God has called Alan Cranston home. I know God has blessed
his soul. I know God will give Alan enduring peace for which
he struggled his entire life to try and obtain for all the
peoples of the world. I ask you to say a prayer tonight for
Alan, his family and his loved ones.
[[Page S1211]]
It was my honor to lower the flag today in recognition of
his remarkable career, and it's my honor now to present it to
Kim and Colette. Thank you.
Joseph Biden. My name is Joe Biden. I served with Alan for
twenty of his twenty-four years in the Senate, but I consider
myself more a student of Alan's. Kim, Colette, Evan, I never
fully understood your father's tenacity, by the way, until I
heard the repeated emphasis on the middle name MacGregor. Now
I understand it better. Eleanor, my sister Valerie says it's
very difficult raising a brother; you obviously did well at
your chore.
I'm very grateful, and indeed privileged, for having the
honor of being here today to represent the US Senate and the
Senate Foreign Relations committee. It's a task that's well
beyond my capabilities, because the life we commemorate was
so extraordinary. To you, his family, to us, his colleagues
and friends, and to the people of this state and nation,
we're not likely to see anyone like Alan, anytime soon.
I can't help but think of American architect Daniel
Burnham's credo when I think of Alan. He said--
``Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's
blood. Make big plans, aim high in hope and work, remembering
that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die,
but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting
itself with ever-growing intensity.''
Intensity, big plans, no little plans, that was the Alan
Cranston that I knew. Most of us would consider it a
successful career if we did nothing other than be sued by
Adolf Hitler. But here's a fellow, a young man who came back
from Europe as a correspondent, who felt obliged to translate
accurately Mien Kampf, who felt obliged to begin a crusade to
expose Adolf Hitler. This is a fellow who didn't just decide
to help a little bit. I remember the lecture I got on redwood
forests. I had not seen one and did not know they had to be
preserved. This is a fellow who had no lesser aim than to
eliminate nuclear weapons in his time, to guarantee racial
equality, to provide durable, affordable housing. I know of
no man that I've served with in the Senate, and I've been
there twenty-eight years, who had as many intense interests
and contributed so much to so many different endeavors.
What accounted for that intensity that dominated Alan's
character? It used to baffle me until one day I figured it
out--it was Alan's integrity, his honesty, his inability to
rationalize to himself that he didn't have any responsibility
for this or that problem that he observed in this country.
Alan had an inner compass that would have plagued most of
us. He could spot injustice a mile away. He smelled hypocrisy
almost before he walked in the room. He knew what had to
be done, and he unfailingly did it, or at least attempted
to do it, usually before anyone else, and almost always at
some risk to himself. I think integrity, political
integrity, personal integrity, is doing what you know to
be right even when you know it's likely not to benefit
you. Alan was one of the few people I served with who
never, never wondered whether he should act based on
whether what he was about to do was popular.
Alan MacGregor Cranston, born in 1914. He was almost thirty
years my senior, yet he was one of the youngest people I have
ever known and have ever served with.
It was not just that his policy priorities would fit under
the heading of progressive, although they would, but with
Senator Cranston, the senator from California, it was more
than that. There was what Robert Kennedy described as--
``The qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of
mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a
predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for
adventure over the love of ease.''
We've all heard that quote a thousand times, but I can
think of none other that describes the Alan Cranston that I
worked with, although some of you knew him much more
intimately.
Alan's commitment to arms control, his passion for
environmental protection, his leadership in public housing
and transportation, women's rights, civil rights, civil
liberties, his concern for justice in immigration laws; those
efforts, those views had nothing to do with fashion, and
everything to do with conviction.
The Senator was not one for looking at a situation and
deciding what he believed, he knew exactly what he believed.
His public positions were not just what he said and what he
did, they were who Alan Cranston was.
The senator was armed with conviction, but he always knew
that wasn't enough. He was an athlete, after all, and
understood that it's not enough to have talent; that if you
want it to matter, you have to do something with it, and work
like hell at it.
Alan Cranston did work, and he worked at leadership. He
understood power, not as a reflection of status, but a tool
for a purpose, and he used it as well as any man or women
I've ever known.
In his 24 years in the Senate and the years since, Alan
Cranston pushed our consciousness and our conscience on every
issue of consequence, particularly nuclear weapons. He was
not just a powerful senator from California, not just an
influential member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
not just a democratic whip; he was truly a world leader on
nuclear policy. In China, in North Korea, in the Middle East,
they had to factor in Alan Cranston when they made their
decisions.
He was an internationalist in the great American tradition,
with an idealist's love of peace and a passion for freedom,
and he had a realist's understanding of the global balance of
power and simple human nature.
He had learned from history, he taught from history, but
kept his eye and his aim always on the future: the future of
the Philippines, the future of our relationship with Russia,
and what that would mean to the world, the future of our
natural resources, and the generation of Americans that we'll
never know.
Alan Cranston ran the hundred-yard dash in under ten
seconds when he was at Stanford, and I might add under twelve
and a half seconds when he was almost sixty years old. He was
consistent, and he was fast, in a hurry. I would suggest not
to reach the finish line, but to get to the next race, the
next test, the next opportunity, the next possibility,
always possibilities. The certainty of a redwood, the
spirit of a wild river, ``a predominance of courage over
timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of
ease.''
The playwright Sam Shepherd wrote, ``character is an
essential tendency. It can be covered up, it can be messed
with, it can be screwed around with, but it can't ultimately
be changed. It is the structure of our blood that runs
through our veins.'' Evan, you've got good blood, kid. It
runs through your veins.
Ted Turner (via video). I could not begin to say enough
about my dear friend Senator Cranston, so sorry he's passed
away. He has been an inspiration to me for a number of years,
no more so than in the area of weapons of mass destruction.
And even though he did not live to get to see the end and the
abolition of nuclear weapons from this world, there are a lot
of us that are going to continue his work, and I am one of
them. We're going to miss you very much, Senator. Thank you
very much.
Sally Lilienthal. Jonathan Schell wrote recently that Alan
Cranston has quietly done more than any other American to
marshal public will to abolish nuclear weapons. He brought
the issue of nuclear arms reductions and abolition to the
attention of business leaders, policy makers and cultural
figures--and most difficult of all, to retired generals and
admirals. And never by email--he didn't have it.
Our last endeavor together was a national campaign to
mobilize places of worship, which is gathering steam today in
Christian churches, Jewish synagogues and Muslim mosques, and
which was originally housed and organized at the Washington
Cathedral in the nation's capital--The other cathedral.
Early last summer, two years of work came to fruition at an
ecumenical service where religious figures together with
former generals and admirals called for the reduction and
abolition of nuclear weapons. That started the ongoing
campaign, the nub of which was the statement Alan wrote and
rewrote to get it finally signed by eighteen retired admirals
and generals joining in with twenty-one religious figures
around the country. Alan was a marvelous writer and consensus
builder. It wasn't easy to sign up the top military figures
to reduce and finally abolish nuclear weapons, for abolition
is not part of Pentagon thinking. And besides less than four
years before he had traveled widely to recruit sixty-three
different internationally based generals and admirals to sign
another affirmation on the same subject. Let me read you two
short sentences from the statement signed by military and
church which is at the nub, one might say, of our ecumenical
campaign.
``We say that a peace based on terror, a peace based upon
threats of inflicting annihilation and genocide upon whole
populations, is a peace that is corrupting--a peace that is
unworthy of civilization.''
And he went on to write: ``We say that it defies all logic
to believe that nuclear weapons could exist forever and never
be used. This nuclear predicament is untenable in the face of
a faith in the divine and unacceptable in terms of sound
military doctrine.''
Alan was always positive. I never saw him downhearted
during this laborious struggle to rid the world of nuclear
weapons. He was tireless in working toward our goal and he
never ever thought of failure. So he leaves us with an active
legacy--the most important legacy of all--that of hope, good
solid hope.
William Turnage. My name is Bill Turnage. I came to know--
and to love--Alan Cranston during my seven years in
Washington as President of the Wilderness Society. Kim
has asked me to talk about Alan's great work as an
environmentalist.
California--our golden state--has been twice-blessed by the
mountain gods.
We have been granted a land among earth's most sublime yet
diverse.
And we've been granted a few splendid champions to protect
that heritage.
In early days, farsighted San Franciscans like Thomas Starr
King and Frederick Billings came forward to protect the
Yosemite.
The idea of a national park was born at the time--perhaps
the best new idea our American democracy has ever had.
And these early champions enlisted a great Californian
photographer--Carleton Watkins--to make pictures that would
help persuade the Congress.
And their dream of a Yosemite park was first given shape
and form by America's greatest landscape architect, Frederick
Law Olmsted.
[[Page S1212]]
And when the Yosemite Sierra was threatened by hooved
locusts--and loggers--and miners--John Muir came forward and
founded the Sierra Club--and he protected the heart of the
High Sierra, the range of light.
And great Muir bequeathed the protection of the Yosemite to
his inheritor, San Francisco's native son, Ansel Adams.
They were two of the greatest environmental philosophs in
our nation's history.
And to turn their dreams into reality, California was
blessed with two of our nation's greatest environmental
legislators, Phil Burton and Alan Cranston.
And Alan and Ansel formed a very special friendship--a
friendship dedicated to saving wild California. Ansel wrote,
in his autobiography, ``I have known many great people in
California's history, spanning my 60 active years. But I have
never been in contact with a public official of such
integrity, imagination, concern and effectiveness as Alan
Cranston...I have found him to be a great leader, one who
transcends party politics for causes of essential human
importance.''
The honor roll of California's wild places Alan helped save
is too long to recite here; it encompassed our state from the
Oregon border redwoods to the Mojave desert in the south.
Perhaps Alan's most lasting contribution to our country's
future was his characteristically quiet, determined and
effective leadership of the long, arduous but ultimately
successful campaign to save the best of wild Alaska.
One hundred million acres--the size of the state of
California--preserved for all time. We simply could not have
done it without Alan's undaunted leadership.
And it could be said that Alan's most lasting contribution
to our golden state was his characteristically patient yet
visionary leadership of the long, arduous but ultimately
successful campaign to save the best of the great Californian
desert. We simply could not have done it without Alan's
undaunted leadership.
In 1994, when the Desert Protection Act was finally coming
to fruition in a Democratic presidency--and Alan had retired
from the Senate--I proposed, with Alan's consent, naming the
vast wilderness areas of Death Valley National Park--95% of
the largest park in the lower 48--``the Alan Cranston
Wilderness.''
Regrettably, the proposal was declined. Today--at this time
of remembrance and in this hallowed place--I would like to
again propose that we join together to ask the congress to
name this wilderness--now known simply as ``The Death Valley
Wilderness''--for our great friend and Senator. The honor,
like the wilderness he made possible, will last for all time.
James Hormel. My admiration for Alan Cranston began over a
half century ago, although he was not aware of it at the
time. The United Nations was four years old. The Iron Curtain
had fallen. Isolationists were urging the United States to
avoid international commitments. And President Truman was
moving--against that tide--to facilitate the economic revival
of western Europe.
In that climate, at the age of sixteen, I became a member
of a student chapter of the United World Federalists, which
was hailed by some as a major movement toward peaceful co-
existence and was excoriated by others--a very vocal
opposition--as a gathering of Communist sympathizers. Alan
had just become president of the organization. It was typical
of the many challenges which he so willingly took on during
the course of his long and productive life.
Alan already had taken on Adolph Hitler by publishing an
unexpurgated version of Mien Kampf. He already had served
during the Second World War both in the Office of War
Information and in the army. He would augment that service
during a long political career, including the resuscitation
of the Democratic party in California and the outstanding
twenty-four years during which he was a United States
Senator.
It was during his Senate years that we met and developed a
friendship which meant so much to me. I admired Alan's
courageous stands on conservation and social justice, and his
unswerving dedication to the peaceful resolution of conflicts
around the world. I discovered coincidentally that his
grandfather had built the house next door to mine, a fact
which underscored his California roots and his deep concerns
for the well-being of his California constituents.
Independently I met and became a friend of his son Kim, which
gave me a window into another dimension of Alan--Alan as
father.
One of Alan's last acts as a Senator was to write the
letters which started the long and arduous process of my
Ambassadorial appointment. Alan was instrumental not only in
beginning the process, but also in guiding me through many of
the minefields which lay in my path.
My memory of Alan is as a gentle giant. His goodness
radiated to all around him. He was a great leader--the very
embodiment of the highest level of leadership as described by
Lao-Tzu, whose words he carried with him as his life's
philosophy, as he sought quietly and selflessly to make this
planet a better place for all of us.
May we have the wisdom and courage to follow his example.
Harris Wofford. You may not know that in her last years
while still painting, Georgia O'Keefe wrote some still not
published short stories that she showed me. The one that
rises in my memory was about a man she met in her first days
in New Mexico. He invited her to see his ranch, three hundred
miles away, and one day she drove down (hiding her suitcase
in case she decided not to spend the night). She stayed
overnight and from time to time they would visit, doing very
prosaic things, sometimes just watching the horses he
trained, or walking over the land, or looking at the hills.
Five decades later she drove down to his ranch, maybe for
the last time, she thought. They sat a long time looking at
the hills and she found herself saying to herself with great
satisfaction: ``Fifty years of friendship with Richard.''
That's all the story said. Well, for me it's fifty-five
years of friendship with Alan. There was little--too little--
time just sitting and watching the hills. He was always on
the go, running sprints or long distance.
When we met just after World War II we were setting out on
no little prosaic mission--it was a crusade to make one world
a reality in a United Nations with the power to keep the
peace and prevent nuclear war. When we last met at his home
in Los Altos a year ago, his smile was still infectious
and he was still hard at work, in his irrepressible way,
on the same mission, persuading generals and admirals and
people of power to join in a new declaration for the
abolition of all nuclear weapons.
When I reread Eleanor's wonderful, perceptive, loving
biography of her brother, I realized how much our lives
intersected over the years and how much his life intersected
with the great issues of our time.
In 1948, Alan gave my wife Clare her first job directing
United World Federalists of Northern California. He caused
one of the greatest tensions in our half century of marriage
when he ran for President on the great central issue of
nuclear peace and asked me to be one of the three co-chairs
of his campaign with Marjorie Benton and Willie Brown. Clare
did not want me to do that. She loved, Alan but did not think
he could win, and thought it was the one time in our life
when I should stick to working as a lawyer and make some
money.
Like many who would rally to his quiet calls over the
years, I could not say ``no.'' In his sixty years of public
service Alan brought many people of different persuasions to
say ``yes'' and to work together for good things. One of
those times he played a key part in my appointment to the
U.S. Senate--which I like to think was a good thing.
Two days after Senator John Heinz died in an air crash,
Governor Casey asked me if I knew a particular major donor to
the Democratic Party and I said no. ``Then why did he write
me this extraordinary letter asking me to appoint you to the
Senate?'' Casey asked. I had no idea. That was the beginning
of a flood of different, well-done letters in the same vein,
from a range of significant people around the country. A few
days later Alan telephoned to tell me that as soon as he
heard the news of John Heinz's death he had gone to work on
the phone, producing those letters--which I'm sure influenced
Casey in my selection.
But the intersection of our lives began way back. From
Eleanor's book I realized that Alan's first journalistic
break was covering Mussolini in 1938, and that the speech he
heard in the Piazza de Venezia when Mussolini took Stalin out
of the League of Nations was the same one I heard in that
same square as a twelve-year-old boy. Alan's greatest
adventure in journalism was getting into Ethiopia for some
months after the Italian invasion. One of my greatest
adventures was going to Ethiopia with my family, in the Peace
Corps.
Before we met, each of us had written a book, in 1945,
calling for a world union to keep the peace. Alan's was the
powerful story of how isolationism in the Senate had killed
the peace after World War I. It was a sign of his
determination to go to the Senate to see that this did not
happen again.
Despite all the help that Alan gave me in my election
campaigns--and Joe Biden and John Kerry who are here--my
tenure in the Senate was very short. His was very long--and
great.
By my count only Ted Kennedy, in this century, rivals Alan
in legislative accomplishments. Alan's mark was on a thousand
bills and countless votes, large and small, where his
coalition-building skill was the key to success.
Like Lincoln, Alan Cranston truly believed that the better
angels of our nature can be brought forth in this land. He
did not discount the demons and distractions in the way, but
he demonstrated that politics is not only the art of the
possible--it is the only way to make reason rule.
It was our good luck--the good luck so many of us here and
around the country--to have had these many years of
friendship with Alan Cranston.
Jane Goodall (via video). I'm tremendously honored to have
been asked to take part in the memorial to someone I admired
so much as Alan Cranston. My body is far away in Africa but I
want you to know that my thoughts are with you now.
I never got a chance to know Alan really well in life
because our paths didn't cross that often. But what I saw I
loved, and like everyone, I admired Alan so much for his
integrity and his sincerity and his determination to try and
rid the world of the most evil weapons of mass destruction
that we ever created, and Alan did so much to alert people to
the hidden dangers of these weapons stockpiled around the
world.
And we shall miss his leadership most terribly, but his
spirit is still around, still with
[[Page S1213]]
us, guiding us, encouraging us, and above all, joining us
together so that we can move confidently towards the goal
that he was setting, and make this world a safer place for
his grandchildren and ours and the children yet unborn. Thank
you, Alan, for being who you were. Thank you.
Cruz Reynoso. I once read that `The most powerful weapon on
earth is the human soul on fire.'
Alan's soul was always on fire for the welfare of those in
need, for the strength of our democracy, for human dignity,
and for a world at peace.
It must have been 1959 or 1960 when my wife and I, with
others from the El Centro Democratic Club from Imperial
Valley (the center of the world) traveled to Fresno for the
annual convention of the CDC, Council of Democratic Clubs. A
featured speaker was Alan Cranston. To this day, I remember
being inspired--he spoke of the role of government in helping
the disadvantaged, of the need for economic democracy, of the
right we all have in equal protection and fairness, and
government's responsibility in protecting those rights, and
of our responsibility to be active participants. That a
person with his soul on fire for those ideals I held dear
could actually be elected to state wide office was, to me, a
marvel and inspiration. I never forgot.
A decade later I found myself as director of California
Rural Legal Assistance. CRLA was the leading legal services
for the poor. Many entrenched interests, including the state
government, found themselves on the loosing side of many
lawsuits CRLA brought on behalf of its clients--farmworkers,
Medical recipients, working poor. Those interests fought
back. Alan worked closely with CRLA to protect our
professional independence and assure our continued existence.
As I saw it, there was little political gain for Alan--it was
his devotion to fairness and to the concept of human dignity
that brought us together. Eventually, it was President Nixon
who overrode the state veto of CRLA, thereby saving legal
services.
And years later Alan's son, Kim, I and countless others
joined Alan in our mutual efforts to register thousands of
new voters, an effort to include all in our democratic
society.
Not all efforts were on a grand scale. My last, and still
ongoing task, has been to represent a prisoner who is in
Soledad for a life term. Alan was convinced that the prisoner
was fully rehabilitated. He called to see if I could help. My
associate, Tom Gray, and I worked with Alan. We will
continue.
Not all was work. I remember those wonderful conversations
as we dined in the Senate restaurant. Once, Alan invited me
to a marvelous San Francisco eatery. At the end of the
evening Alan invited me to join his Washington, D.C. office
in a position of considerable responsibility. Unfortunately,
I could not accept the offer, but the food had been great.
Alan's interest went beyond prison walls or the fifty
United States. His efforts have sought peace for this globe.
John Amos Gomenius, the Czech Religious and Educational
leader wrote about 350 years ago:
``We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one
blood. To hate a man because he was born in another country,
he speaks a different language, or because he takes a
different view on this subject or that, is a great folly . .
. Let us have one end in view, the welfare of humanity.''
Alan's soul was always on fire--for the welfare of an
individual human being--or the welfare of all humanity.
Jonathan Granoff. My name is Jonathan Granoff. I've had the
privilege of working with Senator Cranston on the abolition
of nuclear weapons with Lawyer's Alliance for World Security,
with the State of the World Forum, with the Middle Powers
Initiative, and most recently, with the Global Security
Institute.
Recently, some journalists from Japan were here in the
beginning of December interviewing Senator Cranston, and I
was there, and they asked me what I did as the CEO of the
Global Security Institute. So I said, and I meant this, when
a tree is ripe with fruit, an intelligent person will sit
beneath the tree and gather the sweet fruit. Alan is still
giving us fruit. And Alan's example of being a true human
being is the sweetest fruit that we could be given, because
Alan taught by seamlessly integrating the highest human
values with his daily life.
He exemplified decency and elegance in action. He lived
without prejudice. People say they live without prejudice;
Alan didn't say it, he just lived it. He didn't harbor any
doubts or suspicions about others, he never engaged in
backbiting or any pettiness, and he was tranquil in the midst
of an extraordinary dynamism, like a smooth, powerful river.
He was full of grace. Alan Cranston remains for us a
statesman in a state of grace. His grace was exemplified in
the ease he had in the midst of conflict, because that ease
rested on a real faith in the intrinsic goodness of humanity.
Because he had found that goodness in himself, and for those
of us who had the privilege of working with him, we know
that's how he got us to do things, because we knew that he
never asked anybody to do anything he wouldn't do; he's the
guy who would be up at two in the morning, and then up again
at six-thirty.
Adversaries were only so as to the issue at hand, but never
as to the person, because Alan honored everyone. His inner
clarity and strength was coupled with this unique ability,
and even desire, to hear everyone's point of view, not as a
political ruse, but because Alan honored everyone.
Alan understood fully two icons his parents did not have
that we inherited from the Twentieth Century. The first is
the awesome, horrific mushroom cloud arising from science and
the quest for unbridled power, unreined by morality, law and
reason, and the other icon is the picture of the planet from
outer space, borderless, majestic, alive and sacred.
Alan honored all life by holding the second icon before
him, and that is why he focused most intensely on the nuclear
issue, because that and that alone can end all life on the
planet, and it becomes the moral standard of our
civilization. I had the privilege of traveling with Alan and
going all over the world working on this issue, and one of
the amazing things is I would forget how old he was, because
his body got old, but he didn't. He had found that secret of
the joyous heart, he had found that place of tranquility in
action.
George Crile is a CNN and 60 Minutes producer, beloved,
very beloved of Alan, and he has put together some footage to
give us all a sense of what it's like to be on the road with
Alan Cranston.
[video insert]
Death is such a mystery, and the only comfort is the love
that we bring to our lives, and the faithfulness with which
we carry forth the mission that great men have given us.
Alan, we will follow in your loving memory. We will stay the
course. We will be vigilant until nuclear weapons are
abolished.
We are guided by the philosophy that you held with you.
Lao-Tzu:
A leader is best
When people barely know
That he exists,
Less good when
They obey and acclaim him,
Worse when
They fear and despise him.
Fail to honor people
And they fail to honor you.
But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
They will all say,
``We did this ourselves.''
Senator Cranston sought no honor for himself. He honored
life itself through his service. Together and with your help,
we will follow in his large footsteps, and on the day when
the work is done, the aim fulfilled, we will know that we did
not do it alone. Thank you, Alan. May God give you infinite
peace, infinite bliss, infinite love, Amen.
Alan Jones. We've come to the end of a deeply felt tribute
to a great soul. And any celebration of a great soul
confronts us with choices. And so I offer this final
blessing.
There are only two feelings. Love, and fear. There are only
two languages, love and fear. There are only two activities,
love and fear. There are only two motives, two procedures,
two frameworks, two results. Love and fear. Let us choose
love.
The eye of the great God be upon you, the eye of the God of
glory be upon you, the eye of the son of Mary be on you, the
eye of the spirit be on you to aid you and shepherd you, and
the kindly eye of the three be on you to aid you and shepherd
you and give you peace, now and always, Amen.
____________________