Tribute to Retiring Members of Congress

Pelosi Tribute to Retiring Members of Congress

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Washington, D.C.-House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke today at a ceremony in the Capitol honoring the Members of Congress retiring at the end of this session. Below are her remarks:

"Ron Sarasin and the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, thank you for organizing this celebration of our colleagues and their service."

"Members of Congress, especially those we honor this evening, we thank you for serving our country. You are part of American history."

"This weekend, Americans again celebrated our Independence and the genius of our democracy. Our Founding Generation fashioned this institution as a great bulwark of democracy - a Congress of citizens. And then, after doing the people's business, they would return to live among the people and under the laws they had passed."

"Each of us here is charged with the simple yet solemn trust that Madison described in The Federalist Papers: "to pursue the common good."

"This is our common obligation - to make our country safe, our economy strong, our institutions fair, our society just, and our people educated and healthy. As citizens, this is our opportunity. As legislators, it is our remarkable responsibility."

"Each of us remembers the moment we assumed this responsibility, the day we first stepped foot in these halls - the idealism, the energy, the zeal to do "the common good."

"We celebrated these values when we arrived, and again tonight as some among us prepare to leave. But it should not take the departure of a colleague, the death of a former president, or an attack on our country to remind us of our common values and ideals."

"We all believe that public service is a noble calling. We all take the same oath to "protect and defend" our country. We all pledge allegiance to the same flag. We all love the same country."

"So we must do more than praise civility and respect in our speeches. We must live these virtues in our words and deeds everyday we serve. The American people expect it. But even more, they deserve it."

"In his marvelous account of Congress, Advise and Consent, Pulitzer Prize winning author Allen Drury wrote of:"

"All the men and women back over the centuries who by their dreaming and their striving and their working and their dying, who had it made it possible for their heirs to take with them into [the] future so great and wonderful a gift" as freedom."

"To our colleagues we honor tonight, thank you for your service - for your dreaming, for your striving, and for your working that has made it possible for future generations to enjoy the gift of freedom."

"God bless each of you. And God bless the country you have served so well."