[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 173 (Thursday, December 13, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2279-E2280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO ROBIN HIGGINS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 12, 2001

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember the 60th 
anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Memorably described by 
President Franklin Roosevelt as ``a date which will live in infamy,'' 
Pearl Harbor Day has taken on added significance since September 11, 
when America was again ``suddenly and deliberately attacked.''
  Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in the 60th 
anniversary memorial services at Pearl Harbor. I was particularly 
struck by a moving speech given at the National Memorial Cemetery of 
the Pacific by Robin Higgins, Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs in 
the Department of Veterans Affairs. Secretary Higgins, from my home 
state of Florida, was herself a victim of terrorism when her husband, 
Marine Colonel Rich Higgins was murdered in Lebanon 13 years ago. She 
and her husband have dedicated their lives in service of this country, 
and they are two true American heroes.
  Mr. Speaker, as we remember the brave survivors of Pearl Harbor and 
the men and women serving in our military around the world, I salute 
Rich and Robin Higgins, and I ask unanimous consent that Secretary 
Higgins speech be inserted into the Record.

The Honorable Robin Higgins, Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, U.S 
                     Department of Veterans Affairs

        Keynote Address Pearl Harbor Survivors, 60th Anniversary


     December 7, 2001 The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

       Medal of Honor recipients Mr. Hayashi, Mr. Kellogg and Mr. 
     Firin; Congressman Bill Young from my great state of Florida; 
     Congressman Neil Abercrombie from the great state of Hawaii; 
     Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, from the great state of New 
     Jersey; Chairman Myers; distinguished military arid civilian 
     guests; most honored members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors 
     Association; World War II veterans; and all fellow veterans 
     and their families . . . Good morning, and thank you Gene for 
     that kind introduction.
       I want to add a special acknowledgement of some special 
     visitors with us today from New York who are here as guests 
     of the State of Hawaii--325 family members of men and women 
     who were lost in the World Trade Center on September 11.
       Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi, had very 
     much hoped to be here--and were it not for extraordinary 
     events in Washington, he would have. But he asked me to send 
     you his best wishes. I appreciate and am humbled by the 
     opportunity to represent him and the more than 219,000 men 
     and women of the Department of Veterans' Affairs who stand 
     ready to honor your service to America.
       Few occasions merit words like ``horrific,'' 
     ``devastating,'' and ``tragic.'' Fewer still cause a speaker 
     to follow those superlatives with words like ``magnificent,'' 
     ``awesome,'' or ``heroic.'' Yet today--as I stand here in 
     this most sacred of places, this shrine to the sacrifices of 
     so many honorable men and women--I am struck by the notion 
     that what happened on this morning 60 years ago brings into 
     play all those words and probably more.
       Let me say that I do not believe we need to replay the 
     events of that morning; I am convinced that no movie, no 
     documentary made today, no well-meaning attempt to recreate 
     for today's generation the horrific events of December 7, 
     1941, can ever do justice to what you as survivors already 
     know . . . already lived through . . . already redeemed 
     through your own selfless service to America.
       I take my cue from the words of Abraham Lincoln who stood 
     on the soil of a great battlefield in 1863 and said, ``. . 
     .we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow--
     this ground. The brave men, living and

[[Page E2280]]

     dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our 
     poor power to add or detract.''
       Here on the gentle slopes and broad fields of Puowaina, 
     rest the heroes of another tumultuous conflict. As 
     magnificent as any National Cemetery could be, it is but a 
     humble gift from a grateful nation to honor those of you who 
     stood for--and those who fell for--freedom that Sunday 
     morning. But it does not pay the full tribute due to the 
     sacrifices offered up on December 7th.
       Pearl Harbor . . . NAS Kaneohe . . . Ford Island . . . 
     Battleship Row . . . Hickam Field . . . Wheeler Field . . . 
     Scofield Barracks . . . the Arizona . . .; these were the 
     grounds that were truly hallowed by your sacrifices, 
     consecrated by your blood, and dedicated to your bravery and 
     to the bravery of your friends and countrymen.
       Your lives were forever changed by an event so devastating 
     that it would not be for another 60 years--September 11, 
     2001--that America would again feel the tragic shockwaves of 
     an attack on our home soil.
       Perhaps the events of September 11 resonated in your lives 
     in ways that did not resonate among other, younger Americans. 
     Having lost my husband, Marine Colonel Rich Higgins, to a 
     violent act of terrorism 13 years ago in Lebanon, I felt the 
     old wounds . . . still pink from healing . . . open up again 
     when I saw the Trade Center in flames, and the Pentagon--my 
     former duty station--torn asunder.
       It is possible, then, that on September 11th, old scars of 
     the heart and mind were once again exposed among your 
     generation of soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen and 
     coastguardsmen.
       But I know and you know this: these two seminal events--
     December 7th and September 11th--struck America hard but they 
     did not bring her down. No terrorist--no early morning 
     raiding party--has the power to overcome the will and 
     determination of the American serviceman or woman.
       I am reminded of a recent editorial cartoon of the Statue 
     of Liberty in which a stern-faced Lady Liberty is cradling a 
     child in her arms. The caption reads, ``No one comes between 
     a mother and her children.'' How true that is for our Nation 
     and for the men and women who, for 225 years, have risen in 
     her defense in the face of the greatest personal risk.
       Today is a good day to take a clear look at both our past 
     and our future. It is a day when we acknowledge the debt we 
     owe to those men and women who--because they so cherished 
     peace--chose to live as warriors.


       Could anything be more contradictory than a warrior's life? 
     Warriors love America, but they spend years on foreign soil 
     far from home. They revere freedom, but they sacrifice their 
     own. They defend our right to live as individuals, yet yield 
     their individuality for the cause. They value life, yet so 
     bravely ready themselves to die in the service of our 
     country.
       But why are some Americans so seemingly willing to fight 
     and, it need be, to die? We fight because we believe. Not 
     that war is good, but that sometimes it is necessary. Our 
     soldiers fight and die not for the glory of war, but for the 
     prize of freedom.
       On that December morning, many of you took up a torch that 
     you would not put down for four long years. You valued 
     freedom, and you were willing to sacrifice for it.
       And through your selfless sacrifices, you guaranteed a 
     lifetime of liberty to your families, your communities, and 
     your Nation.
       It is fitting and proper, then, that those of us who've 
     worn the uniform remember our brothers and sisters, mothers 
     and fathers, sons and daughters--but it is crucial that we 
     share what we feel today with those who have never taken that 
     special risk for their country--so that they may understand.
       Soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen, coastguardsmen, World 
     War Two Merchant Mariners and veterans understand the duty to 
     country that causes a man or woman to risk his or her life to 
     try to make a difference. There is nothing that can take the, 
     place of that selfless devotion.
       My husband used to have a small plaque on his desk; it's on 
     nine now and it says: ``War is an ugly thing, but not the 
     ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral 
     and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war 
     is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing 
     to fight, nothing he cares about more than his own personal 
     safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being 
     free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men 
     than himself.``
       There is a fabric that weaves people of conscience through 
     the ages and around the world. That fabric is bound with the 
     moral and spiritual lineage of men and women of honor, 
     courage and integrity; those who value something more than 
     their own personal safety.
       Bound into this fabric are the lives and loves of soldiers 
     and their families from all times, those who came home and 
     those who didn't and those whose fate remains unknown.


       The Courts of the Missing here at the National Memorial 
     Cemetery of the Pacific are inscribed With the names of more 
     than 28,000 missing soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen and 
     coastguardsmen whose names are held in honor along with the 
     more than 38,000 servicemen and women who lie at sacred rest 
     among us today.
       Heroes all, they speak to us of patriots' hopes and 
     patriots' dreams, of lives lived to the fullest measure, 
     lives nobly offered as payment for the fabric of a free 
     society.
       It is popular today to speak of the Greatest Generation--
     your generation, the generation of my father, who also served 
     in World War II--but I think the phrase ignores a basic truth 
     about Americans.
       I believe every generation of Americans has been, is, and 
     will be, great. We all have the potential for greatness, if 
     by greatness it is meant that in ties of trial, we will meet 
     the challenges.of the times with honor, dignity, arid 
     sacrifice.
       But make no mistake; let those who would terrorize us today 
     remember the fate of those who violated our shares once 
     before. And let the 9-11 generation carry the torch of 
     courage and determination you carried in order to rid the 
     world of the evil of the 21st century.
       The colonists who fought for liberty in 1776, the citizens 
     who defend a new nation in 1812, the families torn apart by 
     Civil War, the green troops of the Allied Expeditionary 
     Force, the 16 million men and women who wrested freedom from 
     evil during World War II, the Korean War soldiers and their 
     Vietnam colleagues, the young men and women of Desert Storm 
     and, today, the troops fighting to bring terrorist to justice 
     and justice to terrorists.
       If we consider that each of these generations of Americans 
     stood firm against the whirlwinds of tyranny to secure 
     liberty for their times and their posterity we must call them 
     all great.
       But the generation of the men and women who survived here 
     60 years ago does merit a special measure of thanks for your 
     contributions to America.
       You returned from the battlefield, put aside the tools of 
     war, and took up the tools of industry and technology, of 
     medicine, of science and education, an of community service, 
     In return for all you had accomplished in war--a many of you 
     carried the evidence of sacrifice still fresh on your 
     bodies--you asked only to return to the peace, to the lives 
     and loved ones you left.


       And by your humble example you inspired our Nation to move 
     forward on its path to a righteous destiny. Your contribution 
     will not be forgotten. Your generation's greatness will be 
     treasured and remembered,
       Such a contribution should be sufficient for one 
     generation--but I don't believe your contribution is yet 
     complete. The next generation will need guidance . . . the 
     next generation will undoubtedly face new challenges and they 
     will wonder how to face those challenges with the courage and 
     strength of character that is the hallmark of your 
     generation.
       I encourage our beloved World War II generation, and all 
     our veterans, to share with your children and your 
     grandchildren--with students and scholars and historians--the 
     experiences of your service to America. You have a story to 
     tell . . . you have thousands of stories to tell . . . and in 
     the telling will be the inspiration for the next generation's 
     response to tomorrow's challenges.
       Pearl Harbor survivors specifically--have a unique 
     perspective on this kind of brutal assault an America. You 
     can help the rest of us better understand and come to terms 
     with the values that are threatened and the resolve we must 
     have to overcome our fears.
       I am honored to share this day with you . . . and to be 
     here in a place that speaks of the Nation's commitment to 
     recognize the sacrifices of those patriots who were ready to 
     give the last full measure of devotion so that we could 
     gather in peace.
       May God continue to bless our Pearl Harbor survivors, our 
     World War II veterans, their families, indeed all our 
     Nation's veterans and--especially today those in harm's way. 
     And though I might conclude by asking God to bless America, I 
     need not. Because of you, he already has.
       Thank you.

       

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