[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 4, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5-S6]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             PUBLIC SERVICE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I appreciate very much the remarks of the 
Republican leader, and I think there is no better example of public 
service than Bill Frist, a person who, if not the most prominent 
transplant surgeon in the country, is one of the most prominent 
transplant surgeons in the country, and he decided to become involved 
in public service and he has done it very well.
  I repeat, there isn't a better example of public service than the 
leader.
  When I was less than a week old, my father was working in the mine in 
Chloride, AZ. It was a short way over the river from Searchlight. He 
was working in a vertical shaft. They were sinking a shaft. He was 
working with another man by the name of Carl Myers. They drilled holes 
and set the dynamite charges. In those days they did not have all the 
product liability protection we have today.

  He lit the 10 fuses. One of them went off way before it was supposed 
to. He was hurt very badly. It blew him into the air, blew the soles 
off his shoes. He was in a state of shock. He knew he had to get out of 
there because the other holes were burning. When they were sinking the 
shaft, they had a 10-foot ladder they would bring down, take it out 
when they climbed out of the hole, and leave it at the next level. He 
knew he had to get out of there. He put the ladder down and it would 
keep falling. He did not realize a leg of the ladder had blown off and 
when he tried to climb out, it would fall.
  On the next level was Carl Myers. He knew one of the holes went off; 
he knew there were nine others. He did something heroic, to say the 
least. He could not stop the other holes from going off because they 
were covered with muck at the time, covered with dirt. So Carl Myers 
climbed down. He was a smaller man than my dad. My dad was 6 feet tall 
and probably weighed 185 pounds. He carried him up to the next level 
and saved his life. As soon as he got up there, the holes went off.
  I tell this story because the acts of one man did much. Among other 
things, it allowed my mother not to be a widow, allowed her to have a 
husband and a father for three boys. Later, another brother came into 
the family.
  Carl Myers received a Carnegie medal for heroism for what he did to 
save my father's life. Lowell Thomas wrote about this episode involving 
my father. He quoted Carl Myers as saying: To hell with the medal, 
Harry's alive, isn't he?
  Carl Myers, from the time I was a little boy being raised in 
Searchlight, was a hero to me. Because of his decision our family was 
allowed to function.

[[Page S6]]

  Actions of U.S. Senators and the President of the Senate have 
consequences, just as Carl's actions had consequences. In the Senate we 
make decisions. We have a lot more time to make these decisions than 
Carl had deciding to go back down in the hole. The decisions we make 
touch the lives of Americans. People all over America are affected by 
what we do in the Senate.
  The citizens are counting on the Senate to make sure public schools 
are institutions that we as Americans are proud of. The American people 
are counting on us to make their life better by making medical care 
easier for them to come by. People are counting on the Senate so a 
child's ability to go to college will not be determined by how much 
money the parents have. People are counting on Congress to make sure 
Social Security is a stable fund they can depend on. People are 
counting on Congress to make sure the environment is good, so the water 
we drink is pure, the air we breathe is good. Women are depending on 
us. They are counting on us to make sure their wages are no longer 75 
cents of every dollar we make as men. There is an article in the 
Washington Post today discussing a problem with more unintended 
pregnancies than we anticipated. They are depending on us to do 
something about that. Citizens are depending on us to make sure our 
fiscal house is in order. They are depending on us to do our work in a 
bipartisan fashion to effect change in our country to the good.

  I spoke to Senator Frist this past week. We are working on items for 
when we return in late January, items we can work on, on a bipartisan 
basis, to show the American people that, yes, we can work together. 
There are issues we can work on--maybe the highway bill. We did not do 
it last Congress; maybe we can do it this time. There are many other 
issues the leader and I talked about.
  There are bipartisan opportunities, and I as the new Democratic 
leader speak on behalf of 45 Democratic Senators. We are here with our 
arms open to work with the administration, the Speaker, the Republican 
leader, to accomplish good for this country. There is much we can do 
that is going to make this country a better place.
  Our decisions will affect the American people. We should never as a 
Senate forget that what we do has an impact on everyone.
  I look forward to this new Congress, that we can forget what went on 
in the past, only call upon that which was positive in the past and 
look to the future with a greater day, a nicer day, a more pleasant day 
ahead.
  The VICE PRESIDENT. The majority leader is recognized.

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