Honoring House Pages
HONORING HOUSE PAGES -- (House of Representatives - June 09, 2005)
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Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend, and I thank him for the work that he does with the Page Board. His leadership and faithfulness in this effort is very much appreciated, I know, by these young people but appreciated also by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.
I always like to have this opportunity to thank you young people. You have had an extraordinary opportunity which millions and millions of those your age will never have. You have had an opportunity to see firsthand the operations of the people's House, the House that was established by our Founding Fath ers to reflect, as they viewed it, the passions of the people from time to time. That is why we have 2-year elections.
That is why the only way you can serve in the House of Representatives is to be elected. You cannot be appointed. You can be appointed to the U.S. Senate. You can be appointed Vice President of the United States, but you cannot be appointed to the House of Representatives.
You have had an opportunity on a day-to-day basis to help us make sure that democracy works. You may not think of what you did as high falutin and it perhaps was not, but it was critical to the functioning of this House.
I would ask you as you leave here to leave with a sense of responsibility, a sense of responsibility to convey to your classmates, to your friends in your neighborhood, to your future college classes, your future workers, coworkers, and your families and others and your fellow citizens your view of democracy as it is represented in this House. It is, of course, not perfect, because it is, obviously, human beings that participate in this, and as I know all of you know too well, we humans are not perfect.
However, as Winston Churchill said, while it may not be perfect, it is better than all other forms of government that have been tried. And I have been here now, this is my 26th year. You were born du ring part of my fifth or sixth term in office. As president of the Maryland Senate, I had the opportunity to run the page program in Maryland, and I always hoped that they would go back and say, you know what, they care, they care about our country, they care about us. They disagree. There are deep divisions from time to time, but, for the most part, almost everyone is trying to represent what they believe to be the best interests of their country.
Therefore, you will urge your fellow citizens to partic ipate in the process, as hopefully you will as well. Having more knowledge than they, the more you participate, the better our democracy will be.
So I thank you for your service, not only on behalf of myself but on behalf of the Democratic Members of this House. There is no partisanship in the respect and affection that we have for all of you outstanding young people who make us proud of the generations that are coming and are confident that our country will be better for your future service and your se rvice now.
I thank the gentleman from Illinois for giving me this opportunity, and I thank him for his leadership of this page board. Good luck.
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