[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 9, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H7050]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                FAREWELL TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say good-bye to this body 
as my time serving the Fourth Congressional District of Massachusetts 
comes to a close.
  This job has been an honor. We have come quite a long way since my 
first days in the Capitol when I had an AP reporter following me around 
for the day, and I got so lost trying to find the House floor that I 
ended up in the Longworth parking garage.
  Luckily, things have mostly improved from there:
  Seeing my name on that office door for the first time;
  Keeping company with giants that I grew up idolizing, like John 
Lewis, Eliseo Medina, and Dolores Huerta;
  Having the honor of responding to Donald Trump's first State of the 
Union from Diman Regional Voc-Tech in mighty Fall River, Massachusetts.
  There are a few people who I would not be here without.
  To my wife, Lauren: Thank you for serving alongside me, for the 
sacrifices that you made and the heart that you gave to this job, too. 
Tell Ellie and James that dad has breakfast, bath, and school drop-off 
duty for the next 15 years or so.
  To the Massachusetts delegation: I loved serving with you. I loved 
learning from you. There is no team I would rather have been in the 
trenches with every day.
  To my constituents back home: I am so grateful for the trust that you 
put in me. My proudest moments were when you allowed me to bring your 
voice to this Chamber, when I could carry what you felt in Taunton or 
Attleboro or Fall River or Milford to this floor. Thank you for the 
privilege that you afforded me. I will see you back home soon.
  Finally, to the staff members who worked and thought and fought and 
talked and wrote and served alongside me over the course of the last 8 
years; you all are the heroes behind my story. There will never be 
words for my gratitude for everything that you took on every single 
day--and so many nights--to ensure that we did this job right. I will 
miss not seeing all of your faces quite so often.
  Mr. Speaker, I leave this body proud and hopeful because here is what 
I know: that we are a complicated and messy country, that we violated 
our founding promises before the ink was dry. We boldly declared, ``We 
the people,'' and promptly defined ``we'' as rich, White, Protestant 
men. We staked out moral high ground of life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness, and paid for it with human bondage, abuse, and suffering 
that we carry to this day.
  But embedded in that history is a slow and stubborn story that every 
generation shares, a journey to heal those wounds, an understanding 
fought and bled for over time that we are in this mess together whether 
we like it or not.
  Our arc isn't clean, but it is clear that each generation expands 
that definition of ``we.'' We suffer setbacks. We get pushed off track 
and sometimes can't feel that progress. We fight amongst ourselves. But 
still, generation after generation, we expand.
  And that is the counterweight to the great lie of these times, that 
the American pie is finite; that for my family to survive, yours must 
suffer; that the richest Nation on Earth is somehow plagued by scarcity 
rather than greed.
  Loosening that lie's grip on our country is the work of our 
generation--for people who feel unseen, unheard, and unrepresented; for 
the most in need of assistance and protection, justice and opportunity, 
who have been told by their government that there is no room or money 
or time or will.
  And that injustice is a reality etched in stone rather than a 
deliberate choice by those in power about who is worthy and who is not.
  I hope that in the months and years ahead, this body can help change 
that, that we will err on the side of expansion, of inclusion, 
acceptance, equity, and grace, because history makes clear that the 
only true error is when we do the absolute opposite.
  Our future is big and bright, but it will take everything and 
everyone to reach it. I hope that a new generation of Americans will 
rise knowing that the people's House stands tall for them.
  Mr. Speaker, it has been an honor. God bless and Godspeed.

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