[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13901-13904]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING THE PAGE CLASS OF 2003

  (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, if I could ask the page class of 2003 to 
come down and take seats here in the first and second row, maybe spread 
it out to both sides.
  Here we are, about to end a year, and this is a tradition. 
Unfortunately, a lot of us have to go back to our district and will not 
be here for graduation. I know the class is having the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) speak. He will represent us well as a former 
page himself, but this gives us a chance as a collective body to say 
thank you for all your work and support and friendship and things that 
you have done over the years.
  Obviously, we remember just a short time ago welcoming you and I do 
not know if you remember some of the comments, but I know what I have 
said to other classes is that you get an opportunity to observe and 
work with elected Members of Congress and you will see history in the 
making. We did not know what that would be, but it has happened every 
year. Something occurs that you all are a part of, and you all know 
what those were.
  I also asked and you all made a pledge as a class to do well in your 
duties, do well in your school work, do well in the dorm activities, 
and for the most part, I think you can say you accomplished your 
mission well, and I am very thankful as the Chairman of the page board 
that I did not have to see very many of you very often. So thank you 
for not only doing your work but upholding the great tradition of the 
page program because that helps us continue to move the page program 
forward.
  I am going to be able to intersperse comments as I have a lot of 
colleagues that want to make sure they say a special farewell to you, 
and so I am going to pause right now. I am going to ask the gentleman 
from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe), my colleague, to come up and say his farewell 
as a Member of Congress.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois for 
yielding to me, and I want to say to all of you it is great to be here 
with you on this day. This is something of a bittersweet day, I know, 
for you as you leave an experience that is going to be an experience of 
a lifetime. I can tell you that from having been through it myself many 
years ago as a page, but it is also you are going to be returning home 
to your friends and your families, and that is always good, and you are 
not going to have to be rousted out of bed in the morning for early 
duty over here and you are not going to have late nights on the floor 
of the House for a while. So you can sit back at home and watch it on 
television for a little bit and enjoy it that way instead of having to 
participate in it every day.
  Over the years, you will come to understand just how important an 
experience this is for you, or at least I hope you will, and I think 
all of you will do that.
  First, I just want to say the job that you do for us is very 
important. I liken it to being the grease that helps to make the House 
of Representatives run every day from having squeaky wheels. It is the 
oil that makes the machine work correctly. You really do in a very 
quiet and silent way, kind of behind the scenes, you perform very 
important functions for us, and we are very grateful for that. 
Sometimes perhaps we do not say it often enough or we do not say it in 
the right way. So I just want to say thank you for the outstanding job 
that you do.
  It would not be possible to do the job of pages with other people 
handling those tasks. There is a very special reason that we have kept 
this program constituted the way it is, with young people coming from 
all walks of life, all parts of the United States, all kinds of 
communities, all backgrounds, all ethnic groups, that come here to get 
a sense of what the House of Representatives, what the Congress, what 
the United States Government is all about because in a very real sense, 
you go back to your communities, to your schools, to your families, to 
your fellow students as ambassadors, as ambassadors from the House of 
Representatives, as ambassadors from the United States Congress to tell 
them something about the institution that you have had an opportunity 
for a year not just to study but to live, to actually be a part of.
  So for this last year, you have really come to understand in ways 
perhaps that you do not even recognize right now because it is just 
absorbed to you but over the years you will understand things that you 
know now about the House of Representatives that other people do not 
understand and do not know about.
  The most important thing that I hope you will take away from this is 
that the people who serve here are good. The people who work in this

[[Page 13902]]

place are good. The staff that work behind this desk, the staff that 
work in all of the buildings, that work in all of the offices, the 
staff that help you to go through this year, the Members who serve in 
the House of Representatives and the Members who serve in the United 
States Senate, sure there are bad eggs. There are always bad eggs 
someplace, but they are by and large good people.
  The most important thing is not that. It is the institution itself. 
The institution is much larger than the people who serve in this body. 
This morning we swore in a new Member. I think I heard the figure, the 
9,883rd person in the history of the United States to serve in the 
House of Representatives. It is a great privilege for me to serve in 
the House, and I can guarantee that as I look out to faces here there 
are one or two, maybe more, of you who will someday be back here as 
Members of the House of Representatives.
  It is not the people that serve here. It is the institution itself 
that makes this country different from other countries. It is the 
concept of the rule of law. It is the concept of the history. It is the 
concept of the institution that makes our government work.
  In my capacity as chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, 
Export Financing and Related Programs I have a responsibility and an 
opportunity to travel to a lot of countries around the world, and 
sometimes I see countries that have great wealth, great natural 
resources, have everything going for them except they do not have the 
institutions. They do not have the rule of law. That is what makes the 
United States different.
  We should never just assume it is always there. It is something that 
has to be protected. It is something that has to be worked for every 
day. That is why I think this that you now have a responsibility as a 
former page to go back to your communities, to become active citizens 
in your communities, to help to participate in your community, to 
participate in the political process.

                              {time}  1630

  You will do it in different ways. Most of you will never run for any 
office; but you will get involved, perhaps in a school community, in 
the school board. You will do one of these different things; and 
someday, yes, one of you will be in Congress. Maybe one of you will be 
President of the United States. I can look out here and see many that I 
think might fill that role.
  The important thing is that you stay involved in your community. The 
important thing is that you make a contribution to this great country 
so that your children and your grandchildren can someday sit on this 
floor and have the same experience. It does not just happen. It happens 
because Americans care enough to make it happen. You have cared enough 
to come here and to be a part of this, and we thank you for the job 
that you have done. We thank you for the commitment that you have made 
year long to this responsibility, to this work. And we thank you now as 
you go back to your communities.
  I wish you all the very best, and I hope I see the faces of many of 
you around here in the future. Thank you. Godspeed.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. I 
want to make sure I hand in the list of the departing pages, the class 
of 2003, over here. As you know, you will want to make sure you grab 
your official transcript of the day's proceedings and activities and 
you will be able to see your name in the Congressional Record, and that 
is why we do that.
  Perhaps one of you will become Speaker of the House, maybe you will 
be the President; but the really good job is to be the chairman of the 
Page Board, so that is what you ought to shoot for. Anybody can be 
President, not very many people can be chairman of the Page Board or a 
member of the Page Board; and that is what you should be shooting for.
  I am pleased today to recognize a true friend of the page program. 
You are in the 20th anniversary class, the reconstituted page program. 
This year, my colleague who is on the Page Board, the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Kildee), is celebrating 20 years of service to this 
program. I have only been doing it 5 years, and look at all the gray 
hair I have; but he has been doing it 20 years.
  Mr. Kildee has touched the lives of literally thousands of pages just 
like you throughout his 20 years. In his early days on the board, he 
oversaw the creation of the page school and the residence hall. Most 
recently, he was instrumental in the planning and construction phases 
of the brand new residence hall. And as I like to say, you all are 
living in tall cotton compared to the location the other pages resided 
in. They had to really weather some severe hardships. But the gentleman 
from Michigan was very instrumental in that planning, and I think you 
are all pleased with the residence hall. I know I am. And I know you 
are all grateful to him for that.
  Under the leadership of the gentleman from Michigan, the program has 
grown and flourished to be an outstanding opportunity for bright young 
people. Today, the program encompasses aspects of academic work and a 
social life that has made it truly a comprehensive experience. We thank 
him for his tireless dedication to the Page Board and we congratulate 
him for 20 years of service.
  I am going to ask Mr. Kildee to come up, but what he does not know, 
and I will go over here now, is that we have a little surprise for him. 
We are going to present to him this plaque: ``The United States House 
of Representatives Page Program, Presented to the Honorable Dale 
Kildee, In Honor of 20 Years of Service to the Page Program, 1983 to 
2003.''
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee).
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much. Mr. 
Speaker, this has been a great year. It has been a great 20 years. 
Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I have served now 20 years on the Page Board, 
having been appointed by Speaker Tip O'Neill. I would like to express 
my personal gratitude to all the pages who have served so diligently in 
this House during the 108th Congress. It is the 14th Congress that I 
have served in, and I love every day of it.
  We Members of Congress, we all recognize the important role that you 
pages have in making this House really work, work efficiently, and work 
with some inspiration from you because we all get inspired by those who 
are younger than us, have those ideals and remind us of those ideals. I 
have had some meals with some of you, enjoyed that very much, and had a 
chance to talk to you on the floor. This has been a very, very good 
group.
  This group of young people, you come from all across our Nation, and 
you represent what is so good in our country. You give us so much hope 
for our future. Indeed, I think all of us can say, those of us 
especially who are so close to the page program, that we are better 
people for having had contact with you because you give us such 
inspiration and so much hope.
  To become a page you have proven yourself first of all to be 
academically qualified. It is not easy to become a page. You have 
ventured away from the security of your homes and families to spend 
time in, for most all of you, a very, very unfamiliar city. And through 
this experience as a page you have witnessed a new culture, made new 
friends; and some of you will, I will guarantee, I have been here 27 
years in the Congress, 20 years on the Page Board, some of you, 27 and 
more years from now, will still be friends and you will be staying in 
contact. Because I know some of those pages I first met when I became a 
member of the Page Board still remain in contact.
  We all know that this body has experienced so many things and you 
have witnessed history like no other group. There is a great group in 
this country called Close Up, which is a very good group; but no one, 
no one has seen the Congress as close up as you. No one. You have seen 
this body address the awesome question of war itself. You have become 
really part of history.
  Your job is not an easy one. First of all, you have to possess the 
maturity to balance the very competing demands

[[Page 13903]]

for your time and your energy. I always say there are three different 
arenas down here: you have the floor and the buildings around the 
Capitol, where you have assignments; you have the school and the 
demands in the school; and you have the dorm. There are three different 
arenas. And let me tell you, you have done a very, very good job in 
every one of those arenas, and I am personally very, very proud of you.
  And you have to work long hours, really long hours, and interact with 
people at every level. We have some people who are humble in this body 
and some maybe not as humble, but you interact with all of them and you 
do it well. You face a challenge in the school itself. It is a very 
tough school. Former Congressman William Whitehurst, Republican, who 
went on the Page Board with me, he and I worked together to get that 
school accredited. And, Bill, if you are listening, thanks a lot. He 
lives in Virginia, and he was just a great Member; and we were 
determined to get the school accredited. And it is a tough school.
  You are away, and you have to go back for your senior year to another 
school. That alone presents a challenge to you. But you will meet that 
challenge because you are special people. I am sure that you will 
consider the time spent here in Washington, D.C. to be one of the most 
valuable experiences of your life and that will lead you on to very 
successful and productive lives.
  My two sons were pages in this body, and they went on to serve their 
country as captains in the Army. One is leaving, my youngest one, 
leaving for Pakistan very shortly. He has been in Afghanistan, 
Uzbekistan. But there are so many ways of serving one's country; and 
you have grown in your love for this country, you have grown in respect 
for this country, and you have seen the Congress at its best and 
sometimes at its worst. We are human beings, but this is the best 
system in the world.
  We are going to miss all of you very, very much; and may God bestow 
his richest blessings upon you. Thank you very much.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Michigan for all 
the work he has done, and I also want to recognize and thank some other 
folks for their long-time service and who are very special to the 
program, and you know many of them. Donn Anderson, former Clerk of the 
House and former page himself, serves on the Page Board as a member 
emeritus. Of course, he has a 20-year record. Donn, thank you. Barbara 
Bowen, who has ushered countless students through the confusing worlds 
of algebra and pre-calculus as the House page math teacher. And Ron 
Weitzel has instructed bright-eyed pages in the rich and complex 
history of America as the House page school history teacher. Thank you, 
Donn, Barbara, and Ron for your dedication and commitment to the page 
program.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend and colleague, the gentleman from 
the great State of California (Mr. Lewis), to say a few words. Mr. 
Chairman.
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding me this time.
  Ladies and gentlemen, this is a totally unexpected circumstance, for 
it has not been my privilege to serve on the Page Board. My name is 
Jerry Lewis, from California. I have the privilege of chairing the 
subcommittee that deals with national defense. Our Secretary of Defense 
and General Meyers are briefing the Members, as you may know, over in 
the Rayburn Building; and we have had those discussions many a time. 
But I came here to the floor for other reasons and found this going on 
and thought it might be an opportunity to express my appreciation and 
say a few words to this class as you are leaving, for a time at any 
rate, the Nation's capital.
  I wanted to share a couple of thoughts with you. When I was young, 
not really thinking about public affairs, I grew up in a household 
where my mother was a Democrat and my father was a Republican. So I 
grew up pretty confused, and over those early years spent a lot of time 
trying to figure out what are the Democrats all about and what are the 
Republicans all about, and is there really a lot of difference between 
these huge gray donkeys and elephants.
  I came to Washington for the first time in 1955 as a student at UCLA, 
along with 11 other students, on our way to India in a program that 
existed before the Peace Corps, called Project India. Our job was to 
travel to Southeast Asia, go from community to community in India and 
try to communicate with our friends, Indian college students. On the 
way, we stopped in the Nation's capital. I had not been far out of San 
Bernardino before that. We spent a couple of days talking to USIA and 
the State Department people, and then we took a half day off to look at 
the monuments of this wonderful place. That is the story I kind of want 
to begin to share with you.
  On that trip together we walked up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 
for the first time, saw that wonderful statue seated in that temple. It 
is a magnificent first experience, chills up your spine. We had an 
appointment shortly thereafter on the edge of the Potomac, and in those 
days you could take a chain of boats and ride in a chain of boats along 
the Potomac and look at the Capitol and monuments from a different 
perspective.
  We found ourselves waiting for a half hour, 45 minutes, and finally 
an hour went by only to learn that the reason for our wait was because 
two of our students were being told they would have to ride in a boat 
to be attached to the back because they happened to be black. The 
summer of 1955, 12 young idealistic kids from UCLA going to India to 
talk about freedom and hope and opportunity, and that scene at the 
Lincoln Memorial, and then that experience on the Potomac is something 
you just cannot wipe out of your memory.
  But the point was not at all that our country had not made 
significant progress between the days of Lincoln and that summer of 
1955. Clearly we had made much progress in our country. Clearly, also, 
we have made a lot of progress since then and today. But the real point 
is, as I visit Lincoln, the real point is that this is our government, 
your government. If we are not happy with pieces of it, clearly we have 
a responsibility to try to impact it, to push it, to shove it down a 
pathway that makes a lot more sense from our perspective.

                              {time}  1645

  Mr. Speaker, I went to India that summer thinking that maybe I might 
actually go into politics some time. I thought then I would probably 
run for office as a Democrat. I came back from India convinced, as I 
went through the summer trying to figure out the differences between 
the two great parties, that for me, Jerry Lewis, I probably absolutely 
would run for public office one day, but if I did so, I had made the 
decision that the place where I could have the biggest impact was on 
the Republican side of the aisle instead.
  I draw the painting regarding the Potomac for one reason, and the 
quest for the difference between one or the other, I would love to hear 
from some of you in the months and years ahead, hear from you about 
what you decide to do in terms of your pathway in life, and what you 
decided to do if you involved yourself in partisan politics. Because it 
is people like you who make the two great parties great. But, more 
importantly, you can continue to make sure that our country is by far 
the best and the most important force for freedom in the world.
  Thank you for what you have done, and it is a pleasure to have been 
with you.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank, obviously, the chairman 
for sharing some time with us. I have a few last things to mention that 
are more serious, and then we will have a few lighthearted comments.
  I would challenge you to find out what motivates yourself. What you 
have learned as a page going through this program is what is going to 
serve you well. You have learned a good work ethnic and how to work 
hard. That is going to be important throughout the rest of your life. 
You have learned the importance of a good education. That will tide you 
over as you continue to pursue that.

[[Page 13904]]

  You have learned how to respect one another. I think what our world 
needs more of is people learning how to respect one another, and I 
think the program does a great job in doing that.
  Also, do not give up. Whatever happens, do not give up. At West 
Point, my alma mater, we say much of the history we teach was made by 
the individuals we taught; and I think that is true, what can be said 
of the page program and the page school, because much of the history 
that we know now today has been made by former pages.
  You have in essence now a great tradition to follow, and I want to 
encourage you to make us proud. And you already have made us proud. You 
all in this group have completed more than 1,400 hours of community 
service. We need to tell that story. You know it, but this helps us get 
the message out. That breaks down to an average of 21 hours per page.
  Some examples of the things that you have done are Horton's Kids 
Tutoring Program. That was covered in one of the local papers. The 
Multiple Sclerosis Walk, Calvary Women's Shelter, Martha's Table, 
Ronald McDonald House and work at the Congressional Cemetery.
  As a class, you have also proven to have the most terrible luck with 
weather. From the misty Sunday morning you moved in until the misty 
night of your prom, you have slogged through countless seminars and 
residence hall trips in the rain. In fact, the sun just came up today 
after many, many days of overcast skies. You did not even get a 
reprieve on the day that you were led through the Shenandoahs in the 
rain. You braved the elements recently on a trip to Six Flags and when 
you rode the roller coasters despite the rain.
  You have proven that rain cannot dampen your enthusiasm and good 
humor, and it looks like you may be in luck: No rain forecasted for 
tomorrow's departure ceremony, but, given your track record, I would 
not count on it. I am going to echo Mrs. Miranda's advice, bring rain 
gear.
  Also, we have discovered that the future President of the United 
States, Bryce Chitwood, who was in charge of the page auction which 
raised a record-breaking amount of money for the page prom, $9,000, it 
looks like his fund-raising skills are well organized for future goals 
and aspirations.
  Our future Major League baseball player, Ben Hanna, who, it has been 
said, has great baseball player's hair. I have no idea what that means. 
All I know is what I am reading here.
  One future NASCAR driver, Katie Murray, just has to learn to keep all 
four wheels on the track.
  We have one future tycoon, John Malcovitch, who was born to wear a 
tuxedo and will be in the same league as Bill Gates, who was also a 
page. And I have also been told that at least three of our pages are 
going directly to college, skipping their senior year, and 
congratulations, I think. They are Sam Rykaczewski, Lauren Conn, and 
Michael Tanner. This is just one example of all the great successes.
  But also as exciting is Democratic pages last week participated in 
the annual ``How many pages can you fit into a cloakroom phone booth?'' 
That is not a tradition on the other side, and I hesitate to mention it 
because it might become one. The answer is 11, and congratulations. I 
do not know if that is a record or not. I will have to talk to your 
folks and see where the record might be. I cannot imagine getting 11 in 
one of those phone booths.
  You also have discovered the nook between the page desk and the 
storage cabinet. You all call it the reading corner. Mrs. Ivester calls 
it the sleeping corner, and Democratic pages rush to work each day in 
hopes that they will find the secret candy drawer filled. When the 
drawer is empty, they can always count on the Democratic cloakroom 
managers feeding them bags of Georgia peanuts throughout the day. 
Democratic pages often say they work for peanuts.
  I know that Helen and Pat back in the Republican cloakroom want to 
make sure that we have a special thanks for Matt Buckham for all his 
work carrying groceries for them.
  We have talked through the aspect of this point in time in history 
and you all being involved in that. I think Members have been able to 
relay our thanks to you for your commitment to the institution. As 
chairman of the page board, I can speak for my colleague from Michigan 
and the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) to say we thank you 
for upholding the honor and the integrity of the program. It makes it a 
lot easier for us.
  Not only that, but the good work that you have done in volunteering, 
I think you have set a new standard for future page classes. We are 
definitely going to miss you, but life goes on. You have great 
challenges ahead. Always remember this important time in your life will 
not only be in your memory, but it will be in ours. We look forward to 
seeing you when you come back to visit.
  God bless you all, and may God bless the United States of America.

                       Departing Pages, 2002-2003

       Yvonne Aguilar, Claire Anderson, Candice Armstrong, Harry 
     Bond, Trisha Belle, Robert Brown, Matthew Buckham, Donald 
     Burke, Samuel Burke, Simona Burke, Thomas Carroll, Chris 
     Cantrell, Stephanie Chesnov, Bryce Chitwood, Daniel Clayson, 
     Kevin Clout, Lauren Conn, Christopher Denton, Ben Fendler, 
     Susan Forrester, Doug Gill, David Gorgani, Laura Greenwood, 
     Emily Hagan, Benjamin Hannan, Margaret Hartley, Jane Heaton, 
     Alicia Hines, Margaret Hobbs, Chris Kataros, James Kotecki, 
     Jeffrey Lakin, Erica Lally, Julie Leonard, Rong Li, Alejandra 
     Lopez, John Malcovich, Tania Martinez, Emily McCarthy, Emily 
     MacMillan-Ladd, Jennifer McDervitt, Laura Meixel, Greta 
     Meyers, Michael Mullee, Kiera Murphy, Kaitlin Murray, 
     Kristine Nagle, Amber Nixon, Lauren Noyes, Garrett Payne, 
     Lisandro Rivera, Alex Rochester, Rene Rosales, Sam 
     Rykazewski, Matthew Schmitz, Allie Smoot, Neva St. Morris, 
     Sarah Stafford, Elizabeth Sterling, Annabell Talamoa, Michael 
     Tanner, Michael Tedori, Emily Toner, Emily White, Rebecca 
     Williams, Leandra Wilson.

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