Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014

Floor Speech

Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I rise to add my sense of gratitude and appreciation to someone who has become a dear friend. I am his newest colleague and have had the privilege of working with him for these past 13 months. I just want him to know and state very publicly that he was one of the anchors to me as I was getting to know a very different place from being a mayor of a big city.

Your sense of fierce pragmatism was a light to me, coming down into a place known for partisanship and gridlock, and demonstrated to me your ability to bring people together and get things done, but even more than that, being a model for me, a role model for me in the early stage of my career in the Senate.

I have to confess, and do it with pride, that I love this country with the depth and the core of my being. My parents taught me that sense of pride. But you expanded that, incredibly, by bringing me out to Alaska. Of all my experiences in these 13 months, that was one of the highlights. It taught me a lot when I saw that a Senator still had such a powerful touch and connection and knowledge and love of the people of that State. You have made me love Alaska even more and know Alaska in my heart.

What was extraordinary to me, in knowing you in your short career, was how much you got accomplished, how steadfast you were in pursuing the interests of your State and this Nation. One thing I have to say, I felt uncomfortable as I saw you--I will never forget being at Bartlett High School, with the Bears, and seeing your love and connection to those kids. It made me feel very uncomfortable, the negativity that was being hoisted upon you during a campaign.

It made me think of something as I was out there, and I thought about it again as you talked of history. There is a very famous poet named Maya Angelou, who said these words:

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I rise.

The truth is, you are one of those people who are at your ascendency. You have risen above it all. You have risen above the things in Washington that try the spirits, not just of those of us here but of the Nation. You have risen to a level of accomplishment in your life that is extraordinary and as awesome as some of the vistas I saw in the State of Alaska.

The beauty I have right now, the confidence and the joy I have right now, is the simple fact that I know that God ain't finished with you yet.

Thank you. I yield the floor.

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