[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23311-23316]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       END OF THE 107TH CONGRESS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I come to offer a few remarks today about 
the end of this legislative session. But of course, as is always the 
case when I have an opportunity to sit in this Chamber and listen to my 
colleague, Senator Byrd, I learn a great deal, and it is always a joy 
to do so.
  I am going to be very brief. I have to make a speech to a convention 
at a hotel near the Capitol in a few minutes, but I did want to say at 
the end of this session, and especially after the election of this 
year, something about what I believe is ahead of us.
  We have just gone through an election. That is the exercise that the 
late Claude Pepper used to describe as the miracle in the U.S. 
Constitution. He said every second year our Constitution provides that 
the American people are able to grab the steering wheel of this country 
and decide which way to nudge our country, which direction to provide 
America. So that is what the elections are about.
  This election is described by some in the press as dispiriting and 
disquieting to those of us on the Democratic side of the aisle. To me, 
it is not dispiriting or disquieting. I wish the election had gone 
differently, but over two centuries we have elections that change and 
move and in other ways affect this democratic system of ours--this 
system of democracy, I should say--and I accept the election. The 
election described a government by the American people as a government 
that is very divided. The House of Representatives they chose is about 
51 percent Republican, 49 percent Democrat. The Senate they have chosen 
is about 51 Republican, 49 Democrat. Of course, there is a special 
election in Louisiana in December that may alter that.
  The point is the American people have chosen a very closely divided 
government. That is not dispiriting to me at all.
  We are able, those who come to this passion and this public calling, 
to look ahead to great challenges in our country and understand with 
the President and with the cooperation of Democrats and Republicans, we 
have to work together to meet these challenges. The change in the 
Senate from a Democratic majority to a Republican majority is not much 
of a change, after all, because it simply moves a couple of seats 
around. It is now 51 to 49 instead of 50 to 49 to 1.
  The fact is, in order to get things done to meet the challenges we 
face in America, we must find ways to work together. The art of this 
democracy working is through compromise. There are some who come here 
and decide to say, here is what I believe and I will not move from that 
point in the compass. I will not accept anything less than that which I 
believe today, on Wednesday.
  That is not the way to get things done. We will be best served as we 
meet significant challenges ahead if we, the President and all in the 
Senate, understand we serve the same master; that is, the American 
people. And we want for this country the same thing: To do well, to 
grow, to prosper, to be safe, to be secure.
  Much of the agenda we work on, especially on the Democratic side of 
the aisle, is an agenda that is almost timeless, the things people sit 
at the supper table in the evening and talk about, as they have supper 
together as a family. These are the things we have worked on for 
decades. Questions that a family asks: Do I have a good job? Does dad 
or mom have a good job? Does it pay well? Does it offer job security? 
Do grandpa and grandma have access to decent health care now they have 
reached their declining income years? Are we sending our children to 
schools we are proud of? Are our children entering a schoolroom door 
that is the best we can make it? Do we live in a safe neighborhood, 
free from crime? Is our country safe? Is the security of America safe? 
These are issues the families care about and are issues we work on in 
the Congress and the Senate.
  There are some who come to public service with a very critical 
message of our country; it is the easiest thing in the world. It takes 
no talent at all. I could demonstrate it in 2 minutes. The easiest 
thing in the world is to take a flaw in our system and hold it to the 
light and say, look at this, isn't this ugly? Look at this 
imperfection, isn't it ugly? Yes, it is a flaw and an imperfection and 
there are many in our great country.
  But that is not the norm in America. We have industries that spring 
up looking at our imperfections. We have television programs that 
entertain the American people with other people's dysfunctional 
behavior, and they get great ratings. But it is not the main of what 
America is about. It is so easy to give the negative side. I am tempted 
but I will not; in 2 minutes I can recite the awful things about our 
country. We have people who are professionals

[[Page 23312]]

doing it on radio and television and in politics every day: Look how 
awful this place is.
  It is not awful at all. This country is a country born of the courage 
and blood of patriots. It is a country that survived the Civil War. It 
has overcome a depression; beat back the forces of Hitler, Nazism. It 
is a country that has done what no other country has done. It has built 
the strongest economic engine for growth and opportunity for people in 
the world. It has split the atom, spliced genes, cloned animals, 
inventions too numerous to mention. It is a country that had people 
build airplanes and learn to fly them, had people build rockets and go 
to the moon and walk on the moon. Along the way, it cured smallpox and 
polio, invented the telephone, the television, the computer.
  It is a strong country with a resilient people, people who live in 
communities and help each other, who care about their kids, care about 
their future. Gregg Easterbrook wrote ``America the OK.'' I like the 
title--and the book. I like the title because it describes a different 
attitude about America, ``America the OK.'' That book came out some 
while ago but came out at a time when, as is usually the case, there 
were so many voices talking how awful things were in America.
  There is not a better place on Earth to live. We are lucky to be 
Americans. We are lucky to be alive now.
  When I mention the challenges ahead, first and foremost is a national 
security challenge. That is an awesome challenge. There is no question 
that the September 11 tragedy that befell our country and killed so 
many innocent American citizens reminds all this is a big, troubled 
world in many respects and national security is very important, as is 
homeland security. We must find ways to work together in a big, free, 
and open country, to provide some assurance of security for the 
American people. We must do that without diminishing the basic civil 
liberties that exist in our Constitution for the American people.
  This discussion about a national identification card, about a 
database in which they will data mine all the information about 
people's lives to find out if there is somebody doing something 
untoward, that is not the way to approach providing security for our 
country, by diminishing the basic civil rights in our country.
  We face this very significant threat from Osama bin Laden, who 
apparently still lives. I might say, in the early part of this year I 
was in Afghanistan, I flew from Tajikistan-Uzbekistan to Baghram 
Airbase in Afghanistan, myself, Senator Daschle and others. Flying over 
the mountains of Afghanistan, preparing to land at Baghram, I looked 
down at the hills and understood deep in those caves were terrorists 
led by Osama bin Laden plotting the murder of innocent Americans by 
crashing airplanes into the World Trade Center. You understand 
especially more than ever when you look on the mountains that we cannot 
ever be oblivious to what is going on in the rest of the world. We do 
so at our peril. What happens in other parts of the world is of 
significant interest to us.
  So national security is very important. I don't think there is any 
division, any partisanship, on that issue. We care about this country. 
We care about its security. We care about the men and women who wear 
its uniform proudly in the armed services.
  In addition, the issue of national security, another part of security 
that is important is economic security for our country because all we 
can become in this country relates to having the economic engine that 
provides people opportunities so people can work, have jobs that pay 
well, with security, to build the good schools, send your kids to good 
schools, and provide health care for grandma and grandpa and do the 
things that make this a great place in which to live. That economic 
security and all of the attendant issues dealing with this economy are 
also very important.
  I am proud to be part of a caucus in the Senate that says, here are 
the things we think we need to do to strengthen our country and provide 
opportunity to people in this country. Not handouts, opportunities.
  There are times when people are down and out and have a tougher time 
with it, when it is important for a country to say, let us help you up. 
But the most important element of what we are about is to provide 
opportunity. There is no social program in America as important as a 
good job that pays well. That is what represents the basis for 
providing for a family and providing opportunity in the future.
  This is a big old world, with 6 billion people; about half of them 
have never made a telephone call; 2.5 billion live on less than $2 a 
day; 150 million children are not in school.
  It is a big, difficult, challenged world in many ways, and we are 
enormously blessed to live here, right here, in this great democracy. 
We come from different parts of our country, different backgrounds, 
different philosophies, to arrive here amidst 100 seats in the Senate. 
None of us owns a seat here. We are here as a matter of privilege--
privileged to represent those who sent us here from our home States.
  When we come to this Senate and in public policy engage in debate, 
there are some who look at that debate and say: Look, isn't that awful. 
Debate has broke out in the Senate.
  I remember one day reading the Washington Post and one of the critics 
some number of years ago said--talking about some very aggressive 
debate in public policy here in the Senate:

       This has just degenerated into a dispute about principle.

  I thought to myself: Well, I hope so. That's why I came here--about 
principle.
  Debate is what best serves the American people. The old saying: When 
everyone in the room is thinking the same thing, no one is thinking 
very much--that is a very important thing for us to remember here in 
the Senate. We will best serve the cause of our country's future and 
best serve the American people by continuing to be aggressive about 
that which we believe for the future of this country; by standing here, 
offering ideas that represent the approaches we believe will advance 
America's interests.
  The next session of Congress, both because of national security and 
also economic security issues, will be a very difficult Congress. There 
is no question about that. But it will not be made more difficult by me 
wanting to see the other side lose. I want America to win. And this 
country wins when we best serve this country's interests by not wishing 
others to lose, but offering the best ideas we have and hoping that 
they will engage us in a way that selects the best of all the ideas 
offered in the Senate to advance this country's interests.
  My fervent hope is that the next couple of years will be years of 
accomplishment in which all of us together can think we have done a 
good job in a troubled time for this country; in the face of threats--
terrorist threats, national security threats--we have still advanced 
the interests of this country, even while keeping this country safe; 
advanced the interests of people who work for a living and want 
education, good schools, they want health care. They want the things 
that make this a good life, as well, here at home. If we do that, at 
the end of 2 years I think we will have accomplished something very 
significant for this great country of ours.
  I thank the Senator from West Virginia for his indulgence as well. I 
saw by his papers he is intending, perhaps, to visit with us today a 
bit about Thanksgiving, and what a perfect, appropriate subject, the 
week prior to Thanksgiving.
  I will yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I want to just take off on a word that the 
Senator spoke, the Senator from North Dakota. I will not detain him. I 
know he has to be somewhere, but he spoke about privilege, that we 
ought to be thankful; that this is a privilege. He referred to a 
privilege. I want to tee off that word, ``privilege.''
  Also, I must say before the Senator leaves that I still have not come 
up with the right word when I am thinking about that Greek--it was not

[[Page 23313]]

Aristides, it was not Alcibiades, but I will come up with it. But it 
was another word. It will come to me. I am still worrying about it.
  But on this word ``privilege,'' let us think, if I may suggest for a 
little while, about what a privilege it is--what a privilege it is to 
be an American, a person born in this country of whatever background, 
or a person who has emigrated to this country and been accepted as an 
American citizen--what a privilege that is.
  I am not thinking about Afro-Americans or Italian-Americans or Greek-
Americans or Anglo-Saxon Americans or anything--we have too much of 
these hyphenations. I am not much on hyphenations. I don't go around 
talking about my being an Anglo-Saxon American--but I am proud of it. I 
know other individuals in this country are proud of their heritage, and 
they should be. They should be proud that their ancestors came from 
Africa or their ancestors came from England or their ancestors came 
from Germany or their ancestors came from Ireland or from Poland or the 
Middle East or wherever. They ought to be proud of that. But I don't go 
around saying I am an Anglo-Saxon-American. I am proud of being a 
descendant of an Englishman who came to this country in 1657--but I am 
an American, that's the thing--of whatever lineage it may be.
  It may be from the subcontinent of Asia. It may be a Persian. It may 
be an Iranian. It may be an Iraqi. Or it may be an Indian from India, 
where they have that beautiful Taj Mahal, at Agra.
  But I am an American. What a privilege that is. Do you remember what 
Paul said? Paul, who was earlier Saul, but he persecuted the Christians 
and he came to be named Paul, the great Apostle. He and Silas--I 
believe it was Silas--they were arrested and they were beaten. But when 
the Roman centurion or the Roman officer heard that Paul was a Roman, 
he sent word: Don't--don't strike that man anymore. He is a Roman.
  Being a Roman was something, in those days of Biblical history. It 
meant something very special, being a Roman. Don't strike him. Don't 
flog him anymore, he is a Roman, a Roman citizen.
  The distinguished Senator from North Dakota who just addressed the 
Senate has a deep appreciation for the privilege of being an American. 
And, on this day when we are about to adjourn the Senate, and in 
thinking of a day that is coming soon, Thanksgiving Day, we should be 
grateful and prayerfully grateful, for being an American; grateful for 
this land of ours; grateful, privileged to be an American--privileged.
  Let me now refer to the Mayflower Compact. The Mayflower Compact, 
adopted on November 11--ha. What is that day in our time? The old 
Armistice Day, the day on which my mother, my angel mother was buried. 
She died of the influenza the night before Armistice Day.
  My mother--and may I say to my brother, who is 90 years old and 
living in Wilkes County, NC, today, I would almost imagine that he is 
listening to the Senate--``debate.'' He is listening to us on the 
Senate floor today. That's my brother. I don't know that he is, but I 
would wager he is. He is 90 years old. He listens to the Senate 
debates.
  May I say, if he is listening: Our mother died on November 11, the 
night preceding. I don't know whether it was before midnight or after 
on that night. Just as I don't remember whether Caesar crossed the 
Rubicon before midnight or after midnight on January 11, in the year 49 
B.C. I don't remember that. But in any event, isn't it interesting that 
the Mayflower Compact was drawn up on November 11, 1620, and Governor 
Bradford makes this reference to the circumstances under which the 
Compact was drawn up and signed--this is William Bradford. He said 
this:

       This day, before we came to harbour, observing some not 
     well affected to unity and concord, but gave some appearance 
     of faction, it was thought good there should be an 
     association and agreement, that we should combine together in 
     one body, and to submit to such government and governors as 
     we should by common consent agree to make and choose, and set 
     our hands to this that follows, word for word.
       In The Name of God, Amen,
       In The Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, 
     the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by 
     the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, 
     King, Defender of the faith . . . Having undertaken for the 
     Glory of God.

  Are you listening?

       Having undertaken for the Glory of God.

  Do I hear that a judge in this land has said to take that monument to 
the Ten Commandments out of your Statehouse? Read it. It is in today's 
papers--or yesterday's--where a judge who wears his robes of justice, 
said remove it.
  He should visit my office and see the words of the Ten Commandants 
all over the walls there in that public place--the Ten Commandants.
  How could we come to a place like this in America, this wonderful 
land of ours, this land in which it is a privilege to be born, or to 
become a citizen, to live, to serve, to die in this land of ours, where 
we can be privileged, how could that judge--how could any judge--say: 
Remove those words, the Ten Commandants? Was that the kind of judge, 
was that the kind of interpretation of the Constitution--I wonder if 
Governor Bradford had that in mind. I wonder what he was thinking about 
when he referred to God.
  Let us hear it again. This is what the Mayflower Compact said:

       In The Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, 
     the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James.

  King James was King of England from the year 1603 until the year 
1624, I believe.
  By the way, that Bible, the King James Version, was authorized at 
Hampton Court in 1604, and it was first published in 1611--the King 
James Version of the Holy Bible.
  Let me say it again. This is what the Mayflower Compact said. This is 
not what some misguided judge may have said about the Ten Commandments. 
This is not some misguided judge who has misinterpreted the 
Constitution, in my judgment. But who am I? But I am a citizen--not a 
Roman citizen. I am an American, ``privileged,'' in the words of 
Senator Dorgan, to serve in this land, to work in this land, and to 
live in this land.
  Here is what the Mayflower Compact said.
  Hear me. Hear me now. This is the Mayflower Compact.

       In The Name of God.

  I am going to go out to meet Him soon. Abraham lived to be 170. Isaac 
was 180. Jacob lived to be 147. Joseph lived to be 110. Strom Thurmond 
is going to be 100 in just a few days. I am 85 today. But we can't be 
here always. I am going out to meet God.
  Here is what the Mayflower Compact said. It was drawn up by those 
rugged, brave people on that ship as they prepared to get off that ship 
and step on the stormy shores--the rockbound coast of Massachusetts.

       In the name of God--

  Let us listen today as we prepare for Thanksgiving in this Year of 
our Lord.

       In The Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, 
     the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, 
     by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, 
     King, Defender of the Faith, [et cetera] Having undertaken 
     for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, 
     in the Honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the 
     first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these 
     Presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and 
     one another . . .

  I think it means and of one another--

     . . . covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil 
     Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and 
     Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do 
     enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, 
     Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to 
     time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the 
     general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due 
     Submission and Obedience. In WITNESS whereof we have hereunto 
     subscribed our names at Cape Cod this eleventh day of 
     November, in the year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King 
     James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth and of 
     Scotland, the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini.

  There it is. That is the Mayflower Compact.
  Today, on Thanksgiving, let us be thankful to the same God referenced 
in this Mayflower Compact. Let us be

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thankful we are Americans, that we live in America, that we live in the 
land of the free and the home of the brave, that we live in this land 
which has been so wonderfully blessed by the God of Hosts, the Creator. 
Let us be thankful to Him.
  Great God, our king.
  And the names that followed were: Mr. John Carver, Mr. William 
Bradford, Mr. Edward Winslow, Mr. William Brewster, Isaac Allerton, 
Myles Standish, John Alden, John Turner, Francis Eaton, James Chilton, 
John Craxton, John Billington, Joses Fletcher, John Goodman, Mr. Samuel 
Fuller, Mr. Christopher Martin, Mr. William Mullins, Mr. William White, 
Mr. Richard Warren, John Howland, Mr. Steven Hopkins, Digery Priest, 
Thomas Williams, Gilbert Winslow, Edmund Margesson, Peter Brown, 
Richard Britteridge, George Soule, Edward Tilly, John Tilly, Francis 
Cooke, Thomas Rogers, Thomas Tinker, John Ridgdale, Edward Fuller, 
Richard Clark, Richard Gardiner, Mr. John Allerton, Thomas English, 
Edward Doten, Edward Liester.
  There you have it, the Mayflower Compact and all the names of the 
signatories.
  Then there was Thanksgiving Day, an annual national holiday in the 
United States, celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past 
year. It originated in the autumn of 1621 when Plymouth Gov. William 
Bradford invited neighboring Indians to join the Pilgrims for a 3-day 
festival of recreation and feasting in gratitude for the bounty of the 
season. By the end of the 19th century, Thanksgiving Day had become an 
institution throughout New England and was officially proclaimed as a 
national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The traditional 
feast of turkey and pumpkin pie has since become an indigenous part of 
the national culture. Traditionally celebrated on the last Thursday in 
November, it was changed by act of Congress in 1941 to the fourth 
Thursday of that month. Canada first adopted Thanksgiving as a national 
holiday in November 1879, and it is now celebrated annually on the 
second Monday in October.
  That has reference to Thanksgiving Day, again, referring to Plymouth 
Gov. William Bradford who, in the autumn of 1621, invited the 
neighboring Indians to join the Pilgrims for a 3-day festival of 
recreation and feasting in gratitude for the bounteous season.
  So on Thanksgiving Day let us remember those colonial forbears of 
ours, let us remember Plymouth Gov. William Bradford, who recognized 
that day of thanksgiving and whose name I referenced earlier in regard 
to the Mayflower Compact.
  (Mr. DURBIN assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. BYRD. So, Mr. President, I want to spend a few minutes just being 
thankful. The change in party control is but a small shift in the wind 
compared to the gale forces that have blown in the past. It does not 
compare to war, to acts of terror, the upheavals in the strategic 
balance of power. I will live through that again, if I live, if the 
Good Lord so blesses me.
  Today, as the Senate attempts to conclude its work for this session, 
one can almost smell the turkey roasting.
  Tomorrow, if the Good Lord willing--in the Book of James it says: 
Don't say you will go here or there tomorrow, and you will buy this and 
that, or you will visit this city or that tomorrow; but say: If the 
Lord wills.
  The Book of James.
  So tomorrow, if the Lord wills, my wife and I hope to visit the Giant 
store over in McLean. And I can see the lines in the grocery stores. 
They are long. And the carts are full, as families prepare for the 
feast, for the feast to come next week: Plump turkeys, deep red 
cranberries--my wife is the best when it comes to fixing that cherry 
pie and the cranberry dressing, and all these things--rich pumpkin pie 
filling, sweet whipped cream, crisp green beans, flour and spices for 
baking--all are fond reminders of the season of Thanksgiving.
  This year, travel is expected to rebound, after the scares of last 
year, as families reconnect more strongly. The Thanksgiving feast, the 
epitome of family tradition, is back, more precious, more appreciated 
than ever.
  The Nation, too, feels stronger. Our economy may be weaker, but we 
are more aware of ourselves as a nation of Americans, as citizens of 
one land, rather than an eclectic mix of communities with little 
connection to each other.
  As a nation, we feared the sniper who stalked the National Capital 
Area just a few weeks ago. As a nation, we pulled for those coal 
miners.
  I know the Presiding Officer of the Senate today, the distinguished 
Senator from Illinois, Mr. Durbin, whose ancestry goes back to the 
great country of Poland, does not go around saying: I am a Polish 
American. He says: I am an American. He is proud of his ancestry. I 
have talked with him about it. But he does not remind me every day that 
he is a Polish American. He is an American, just, as I said a little 
earlier, I am an Anglo Saxon American. But I do not go around talking 
about it. These hyphenated Americans, I am not too high on using the 
hyphen in that respect. We are all Americans.
  In any event, as a nation, we feared that sniper. And as a nation, 
then, we pulled for those miners. And the Senator from Illinois knows 
about the coal miners of that State, as I know about the coal miners of 
West Virginia.
  As a nation, we pulled for the miners who were trapped underground in 
Pennsylvania. As a nation, we followed the hunt for terrorists. We 
mourned for the victims of terrorist acts committed around the world.
  We now know the feeling of wearing a target on our backs by virtue of 
the passport we carry. It is a new feeling for many Americans; not 
exactly a pleasant one, but if it is a burden of our citizenship, we 
wear it with pride.
  The flags that have flown in yards nationwide since September 11, 
2001, are still flying in our minds and in our memories, in our hearts.
  Our military, with the National Guard and Reserve forces, is more 
unified this Thanksgiving. All are under the strain of extended callups 
and deployments but all are working together. They are not weekend 
warriors, they are not sunshine patriots versus regulars, but they are 
full-time professionals, operating under the shadow of war, pushing 
hard to extend security across the globe. I am thankful for their 
effort.
  I am reminded of the words of Thomas Paine, who wrote, on December 
23, 1776:

       These are the times that try men's souls. The summer 
     soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink 
     from the service of his country; but he that stands in NOW, 
     deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

  Now, Mr. President, as I share my turkey and dressing with my dear 
Erma and with my daughters and sons in law, grandchildren and great 
grandchildren, I will offer a prayer to each of the Nation's men and 
women in uniform and their families. As we dine, they are flying, they 
are steaming, driving, and standing guard over our Nation's liberty. 
They are on the front lines of the war against terrorism.
  Their families are gathering around tables that are not as full as 
they should be. Some of the chairs will be vacant. The circle of 
smiling faces will be incomplete.
  This year especially we ought to remember and be thankful to them and 
to God for their effort. We should remember and give thanks for the 
efforts of our Nation's veterans. They and their families have also 
sacrificed for our Nation. Their families have sacrificed. Their wives 
have sacrificed. Their children have sacrificed. Their parents have 
sacrificed. Their brothers, their sisters, their kinsmen have 
sacrificed.
  In this year even more than ever, we will remember the firemen, the 
policemen, the lifesaving crews who have performed so heroically during 
the crises of the past year and more. As terrorism struck our homeland, 
as anthrax filled our Federal buildings, as a sniper took aim at 
innocent people going about their everyday business, these first 
responders rose to the challenge. People are alive today because of 
their efforts.
  In addition to their everyday duties, the local and State police, the 
fire departments, the public health departments, the hospitals, the 
ambulance

[[Page 23315]]

crews, all are planning how they might best respond to a major 
terrorist attack, whether it comes in the form of conventional 
explosives or chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons. Their 
diligence at this task may make the difference for all of us in the 
future. They, too, will have my prayers this Thanksgiving.
  Those of us in the Senate family should remember in our prayers the 
men and women who gave their lives on September 11, who gave their 
lives for us. There was a fourth plane, and some noble men and women on 
that fourth plane decided among themselves that they were going to die, 
but they decided that that plane, while it would carry them to their 
death, that plane would never complete its mission. Its mission, we 
understand, was this Capitol.
  So we Members of this body, the members of the Senate family, the 
pages, the security people here, the Chaplain and his staff, our 
staffs, may all give thanks on that day for those brave men and women 
who knew they were going to die, who took phones and called their loved 
ones and said, for the last time: I love you. But they concluded among 
themselves: We will die that others won't die. If one could write the 
chapter, if one could have been there, they gave their lives and 
brought forth their sacrifices. Who knows? Who knows? Those eagles up 
there that from time to time must scream would not be there today.
  That plane, that fourth plane, went down in Pennsylvania, the State 
in which that Philadelphia Convention was held, out of which came the 
Constitution and this great constitutional system that we know about.
  So it is a daunting task when we think about the settlers who thanked 
Providence for seeing them through a difficult first year. It is a 
daunting task to carve a homestead out of the wilderness thousands of 
miles from anything familiar. One could not drive to the hardware store 
to purchase lumber and nails and shingles and windowpanes. You could 
not plug in or charge up labor-saving tools such as power saws and nail 
guns. No, each log had to be cut with an axe, dragged to the site and 
lifted by hand--not by an electric crane--and placed.
  Each shingle for the roof had to be planed for more wood; each stone 
for the foundation and the chimney had to be dug up and hauled to the 
site. And while the home building was going on, the fields had to be 
cleared. The fields had to be planted; the fields had to be tended. 
Game had to be hunted and cured, or there would be no food for winter, 
let alone for a Thanksgiving feast.
  So in this year of our Lord 2002, we gather in warm houses with our 
loved ones, each house a glowing lamp of civilization in an 
increasingly hostile world. It is a different kind of wilderness that 
surrounds us now, a forest of threats from unfamiliar places with 
unfamiliar names that press in from all sides. But for a day we can 
easily push our nagging fears aside and find comfort in the warm bonds 
of family affection.
  As we work together, polishing the silver, setting the table, and 
preparing and serving the delicious food and talking to the little 
ones, the little grandchildren, and to little puppies, like Trouble 
over at my house and Danny over at my daughter's home, and washing the 
dishes, we share in life's greatest gift--our families.
  I would like to close with a poem. I am still looking for that Greek 
name. It has slipped my mind.
  The poem is ``Home, Sweet Home":
     'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
     Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
     A charm from the sky seem to hallow us there,
     Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met elsewhere,
     Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
     There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

     An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;
     Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!
     The birds singing gaily, that came at my call--
     Give me them--and the peace of mind, dearer than all!
     Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
     There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

     I gaze on the moon as I tread the drear wild,
     And feel that my mother now thinks of her child,
     As she looks on that moon from our own cottage door
     Thro' the woodbine, whose fragrance shall cheer me no more.
     There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

     How sweet `tis to sit `neath a fond father's smile,
     And the caress of a mother to soothe and beguile!
     Let others delight 'mid new pleasure to roam,
     But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home.
     Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
     There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

     To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;
     The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there;
     No more from that cottage again will I roam;
     Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
     Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
     There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!
  God bless our homes, and God bless the sweet land of liberty, 
America.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida is recognized.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, God bless America, and God 
bless Senator Byrd and what he has meant to this institution, and for 
serving in this institution, the Congress of the United States, for 
over a half century.
  We have had the privilege of again having one of the great insights 
into American history as seen through the prism of Senator Byrd's 
observation after a half century of American politics and American 
history.
  When I was a Member of the other body, the House of Representatives, 
one of the great delights I had was to sit at the knee of Congressman 
Claude Pepper, a former Senator. He was a walking political history 
book. And along with that delightful personality, you could learn so 
much just listening. Of course, he was always a great delight. The 
Senator who presides and I both had the pleasure of being with Claude 
Pepper. So often I would hear when he would take what he would call his 
``boys''--those members of the Rules Committee--on a trip and those 
younger Members of Congress--younger by one-half and sometimes two-
thirds the age of the venerable Claude Pepper--could not keep up with 
the energetic pace he kept on those congressional delegation trips.
  And so, likewise, it has been such a privilege for me that I have now 
had the opportunity to come here to the Senate and sometimes to sit at 
the knee and learn from the senior Senator from West Virginia.
  For what you have given to all of us--the particular interests and 
affection you have shown to the new Members of the Senate in the 107th 
Congress--we are all so very appreciative to you.
  Again, thank you for your words today in commemorating this time of 
Thanksgiving that so many of us in our own way will say a little prayer 
of gratefulness for this blessed land of which we have the privilege of 
being citizens.
  Mr. President, I rise today to again give another one of my speeches 
about my favorite little agency, the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, before the distinguished Senator proceeds, 
if he would allow me to interrupt him for a comment.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. I yield to the Senator for that purpose.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator for his 
kind words of praise. But let me say some good words about him. That is 
why I have sought to interrupt him. The Senator has come to the Senate 
and brings with him a marvelous background of knowledge--knowledge of 
space, space flight, and our explorations into space. He is not by any 
means as long in his experience in this great country as I am. I can 
remember when Lindbergh flew across the ocean in 1927, I believe on May 
9. When he launched that flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, the New 
York Times had a headline, if I remember, that said Lindbergh flew 
across

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New York City--or perhaps it was Nova Scotia--at the ``tremendous'' 
speed of 100 miles an hour. That man, when he flew across the ocean--
sometimes 10 feet above the water, sometimes probably 10,000 feet above 
the water--he had a payload of about 5,500 pounds; he had about five 
sandwiches, and he ate a half of one on his way across the water. That 
was a lonely man.
  But now this man from Florida, who graces this Chamber, flew in space 
at the tremendous speed, I would imagine, of about 18,000 miles an 
hour. So as we in high school used to talk about that flivver--there 
were not many flivvers in that day. A few automobiles were owned by 
high-ranking officials in the coal mining community, and they spoke of 
that automobile coming down Sofia Mountain at the speed of a mile a 
minute. Here is this man who has come to us and has flown at the 
tremendous speed of 18,000 miles an hour. He has also brought with him 
a deep respect of the Constitution of the country, a deep respect for 
this institution.
  I thank God, as we near Thanksgiving Day, for pioneers like this man, 
Senator Nelson of Florida. He is a pioneer in space. We have 
thankfulness to him and other men like him, such as the Presiding 
Officer who comes from Illinois; they both came over from the other 
body. So many of us came from the other body, and so many of us, I am 
sorry to say--especially those who have come lately--seem to think this 
body should be another House of Representatives. I should not get 
started on that.
  But I thank the distinguished Senator, my dear friend, for his kind 
references to me and the context in which he made those references. I 
hope I can live up to his faith and his accomplishments. I thank him 
for the Senator he is and the American that he is as we near 
Thanksgiving Day in a land for which we have so much to be grateful.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I thank the Senator for his 
kind words. Whenever he is so gracious to me, as he just has been, I 
think myself undeserving of those kind words.
  I look around this Chamber and see the places that people who have 
really shown courage and devotion to duty and to country sit, a place 
like over there, Senator Inouye, a winner of the Congressional Medal of 
Honor; a place like over there, Senator McCain, a prisoner of war who 
withstood those horrors for over 6 years; a place like over there for 
Senator Chuck Hagel, a distinguished veteran of Vietnam; a place like 
over here, the seat of Senator John Kerry, the holder of the Silver 
Star from Vietnam; or that seat right there, the occupant of which will 
be leaving us at the end of this Congress, a triple amputee from 
Vietnam, Senator Max Cleland, who has overcome so much and yet who has 
the greatest attitude of any Senator in this body. These are the 
heroes, and there are many more, both men and women, in daily acts of 
courage. I feel very privileged to be a part.

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