[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 1758]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                IN RECOGNITION OF SENATOR ALAN CRANSTON

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, it is my pleasure today to inform 
my colleagues of the recent achievement of a friend and former member 
of this body, Senator Alan Cranston. On Tuesday March 14, 2000, in San 
Francisco, Senator Cranston will receive the prestigious W. Averell 
Harriman Award from the Lawyers Alliance for World Security for his 
tireless efforts to achieve a safer, more peaceful world.
  Alan Cranston served the people of California in the United States 
Senate, in the seat I now occupy, for 24 years. During this time he 
distinguished himself as one of this institution's most passionate and 
effective voices for the rights of ordinary people. From protecting a 
woman's right to choose, to fighting for adequate and affordable 
housing, to making certain our veterans are treated with the respect 
they deserve, Senator Cranston devoted his career to making this nation 
a stronger, more decent place.
  One of the most important ways he set about making his vision for a 
better America a reality was by not limiting his efforts to these 
shores alone. Alan Cranston is very much a citizen of the world. Having 
witnessed the devastation of war in Europe and Japan, he has always 
acted on the belief that America's future cannot be guaranteed unless 
the world's is. And nothing threatens global security more than the 
continuing prevalence and proliferation of nuclear weapons.
  There are few people who are more dedicated to the reduction and 
elimination of nuclear weapons than Alan Cranston. So deeply does he 
feel about this issue that he has made it his life's work. In 1995, 
with the guidance of President Mikhail Gorbachev and others, he 
launched the Nuclear Weapon Elimination Initiative. From this initial 
blueprint sprang the Global Security Institute. As its president, 
Senator Cranston and GSI are committed to educating the people of the 
world and their leaders about the enormous threats posed by nuclear 
weapons.
  It is for his work with GSI, and indeed his literal lifetime of 
commitment to global peace, that Senator Cranston so richly deserves 
the W. Averell Harriman Award. Few men or women have done so much to 
secure a safe future for all the people of the world.

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