[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 60 (Thursday, April 6, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E478-E479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN ADDRESS AT THE PUBLIC MEMORIAL FOR JOHN 
                                 GLENN

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 6, 2017

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the remarks of Vice 
President Joe Biden at a remembrance ceremony held in Columbus, Ohio on 
December 17, 2016 at the Mershon Auditorium (The Ohio State 
University):

       When John Glenn was 10 years old, his father, his hero, a 
     veteran of World War I, taught him how to play ``Taps'' on 
     the bugle. They'd play together on Memorial Day in New 
     Concord [Ohio], small flags and flowers next to gravesites--
     gravestones of the fallen. And John would recall that time 
     and feeling when he said, where ``Love of country was a 
     given. Defense of its ideals was an obligation.'' And, ``The 
     opportunity to join in its [quests] and explorations was a 
     challenge not only to fulfill a sacred duty but to join a 
     joyous adventure.
       With John, all the years I knew him and worked with him was 
     always a joyous adventure.
       Annie, what a joyous adventure you and John had together, 
     on display for your children and the whole world to see.
       You all know it. You can tell when a couple really, 
     genuinely loves and enjoys one another.
       It was infectious.
       On behalf of President Obama and the First Lady, on behalf 
     of the American people, Jill and I are here because we love 
     you Annie, and we loved John. And together you taught us all 
     how to love.
       That's not something you usually talk about when you talk 
     about heroes, especially heroes like John Glenn, who lived a 
     life that was rigorous but tinged with just a little bit of 
     magic.
       Just a little bit of magic.
       We talk about daring spirit, poise under pressure, mental 
     and physical toughness, but for all his heroism that history 
     will remember in war, in space, in public life, you felt 
     something deeper with John.
       Annie, on the way to get to Air Force 2, I got a call from 
     John Kerry, who's somewhere over the Atlantic on the way to 
     another mission in the Middle East to try to deal with Yemen. 
     And he told me about his time he got to spend with you a 
     couple days ago, and the family. He pointed out, he said, 
     ``Joe, you know John's only the ninth person in history in 
     the state of Ohio to ever lie in state. ``Governor, I didn't 
     know that.''
       Only the ninth in history.
       And he talked about how much it meant to him to be with 
     you. And he gave, spontaneously, what I think is maybe the 
     best description of John Glenn I've ever heard--and I new 
     John for 40 years. He said, ``John came out of the heart of 
     the country''--like you kids do--``and he stole America's 
     heart.'' ``Came out of the heart of the country and he stole 
     America's heart.''
       And he did: He stole America's heart.
       I remember as a kid, freshman in college, John's historic 
     flight.
       And Annie, you and John and Jill and I have been friends 
     for 40 years. I know others have longer relationships but 
     what a wonderful 40 years it has been.
       We served in the Senate together side-by-side for 25 years, 
     and we traveled around the world together. John was one of 
     the happiest people I ever knew. Think about it--one of the 
     happiest people I ever knew. He had that infectious smile. 
     Even when things looked like everything was crashing down, 
     John would walk into my office or walk into a caucus with 
     that big smile on his face and I wondered, ``Where in the 
     hell has he been?'' ``Did he not just hear what I just 
     heard?'' (You think I'm kidding. I'm not kidding.)
       But the world knew, [revered], and respected John, from 
     Columbus to Cambodia, from Washington to Beijing. He loved 
     being a senator. He loved his constituents and his 
     colleagues. He loved his staff, many of whom are here today. 
     And, boy, did they love him back.
       And you could feel his love for his country and for his 
     state and for the Marine Corps. He was kind of partial to 
     NASA.
       But most especially you felt his love for you, Annie, and 
     for Dave and Lyn, and his grandchildren. All you had to do, 
     as I said, was see John and Annie just walk together, just 
     the way they looked at each other, and you knew that's what 
     it's supposed to be like.
       I said that to Annie today before we came in and she said, 
     ``Well, that's like you and Jill.'' I said, ``No it's 
     different. Everybody knows I love Jill more than she loves 
     me. I think you, [Annie], loved him just as much.
       The last time we were together, when Jill and I had Annie 
     and John over to the Vice President's residence--I was 
     looking at the picture this morning, Annie, of you guys 
     walking down the steps, walking out to the gate, and Jill and 
     I behind you. And the words of the poet Christopher Marlowe 
     literally came to mind, and I had to rewrite this on the way 
     to the plane. Christopher Marlowe said: ``Come with me and be 
     my love and all the pleasures we shall prove.''
       Well, together, Annie, you and John proved all the 
     pleasures. You not only had a magical love affair--the other 
     thing about you, you were partners. You were [unclear] 
     partners. Together, you bore the way to fame and 
     responsibility and with enormous humility, and a sense of 
     duty that defined you as the greatest of America's greatest 
     generation.
       I think John defined what it meant to be America, what it 
     meant to be an American, what we were about--just by how he 
     acted. Always about promise. We were a country of 
     possibilities, opportunity. Always a belief in tomorrow.
       Tomorrow.
       When John was at the house a couple years ago it's all he 
     kept talking about: ``What are you going do now, Joe?'' 
     ``What are we going to do tomorrow?'' ``We have all these 
     opportunities.''
       Together, you and John taught us that a good life is built 
     not on a single historic act--or multiple acts--of heroism, 
     but a thousand little things; the thousand little things that 
     build character, treating everyone with dignity and respect
       John was one of the few of my colleagues who would be going 
     to the restroom where there was a shoeshine guy. John would 
     always pat him on the shoulder and give him a hug, 
     understanding that despite fame and position everybody was 
     John's equal.
       Everybody was John's equal--in his mind.
       And it all comes down to being personal. The President 
     always kids me, Annie, because I'm getting older, now. I 
     could even try to improve on Tip O'Neill's admonition about 
     ``all politics is local.'' I don't think John agreed with 
     that either. I think, and I think he thought, all politics is 
     personal. It's all personal.
       It all comes down to being personal--to being there for 
     family, and being there for friends, in good times and in bad 
     times; like you and John were there for me and Jill when I 
     was in the hospital. You were there for us when our son, 
     Beau, was deployed and you were there when we buried him.
       It's all about being personal.
       Annie, you and John, as was mentioned earlier by the first 
     speaker, were with Ethel [Kennedy]. I happened to be with 
     Ethel Kennedy at an awards ceremony in New York, the little 
     ripple of hope ceremony. And, ironically, a fellow who runs 
     my office, who's a Ohio guy, said John ``wasn't doing well.'' 
     ``You ought to call John.'' And I had a brief discussion with 
     Ethyl as I sat with her. And the story is well known about 
     him talking to the kids, being sent back to Hickory Hill. But 
     what struck me was I was told that when you and John got to 
     Hickory Hill, John walked into Senator [Robert] Kennedy's 
     private study and saw that Robert Kennedy, who was the only 
     political [uncertain] I ever had in my life, had out a book 
     of Ralph Waldo Emerson's poetry. And it was opened up, and in 
     a leaf of the book, there in the margins, were comments made 
     by Robert Kennedy. And the passage that John, I'm told, 
     remembered was where Emerson said, ``This time, like all 
     times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with 
     it.'''
       The thing that I liked most about John was he knew from his 
     upbringing that ordinary Americans can do extraordinary 
     things.
       Ordinary Americans could do extraordinary things.
       And he believed, I believe, he was confident that every 
     successive generation would know what to do with it. And 
     that's the charge I think John left us, Annie: to join our 
     nation's conquests and our nation's explorations as a 
     challenge, not only to fulfill a sacred duty, but to join in 
     this joyous adventure.
       So when the Marine plays ``Taps'' on the bugle at Arlington 
     for our friend, we can look deep into the heavens and know 
     with certitude that John believed--and was right--that future 
     generations of Americans will also look deep within the 
     heavens and understand how to explore, how to serve, how to 
     love; and will come to understand that if we're looking for a 
     message to send about our time here on earth, for what it 
     means to be an American: It's the life of John Glenn. And 
     that is not hyperbole.
       So, God bless you, John.
       God bless you, Annie.
       And may God protect our troops.

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