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[Page: S8862]  GPO's PDF
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   Mr. DASCHLE. Like so many of us, I listened all weekend long to the news reports, and held onto hope long past the point when it was reasonable to do so.

   I wanted so much for there to be a different ending--for John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and her sister Lauren to somehow, miraculously, have survived. So like people all across our Nation, all across the world, I kept a vigil.

   Then, Sunday night, the Coast Guard announced that the rescue mission had become a recovery mission.

   Today, our thoughts and prayers are with the Kennedy and Bessette families. We pray that God will comfort them and help them bear this grief that must seem unbearable now. We offer our sympathies, as well, to the many friends of John Kennedy, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette. They, too, have suffered a great loss.

   I want my friend, Senator EDWARD KENNEDY, John's uncle, to know, as I have told him personally, we are praying for him.

   Just last week, Senator KENNEDY stood on this floor and spoke about people who had died too young, and the heartbroken families they had left behind. He urged us to pass real patient protections so other families would not have to experience that same pain.

   Today, once again, it is Senator KENNEDY's family, along with the Bessette family, who are experiencing the pain of death that comes far too soon.

   More than a century ago, the great New England poet, Emily Dickinson, sent a letter to a friend who had lost someone very dear. ``When not inconvenient to your heart,'' she wrote, ``please remember us, and let us help you carry [your grief], if you grow tired.''

   I know I speak for many of us when I say to Senator KENNEDY: Please--if there is any way--let us help you carry your grief, if you grow tired. You and your family have given our Nation so much. Let us--if we can--give something back to you.

   All weekend, I watched the news. Over and over again, I saw that heartbreaking image of the little boy saluting his father's coffin. Then came the announcement that the little boy was gone, too. And just when I thought I finally understood the magnitude of the loss, I listened to the news again this morning, and I heard friends of John F. Kennedy, Jr. say they felt certain he would have run for public office one day--probably for a seat in the United States Senate.

   I don't know if that is true. I do know that John F. Kennedy, Jr. believed deeply in public service. He believed what his father had said: ``to those whom much is given, much is required.'' If he had chosen to run for the Senate, I have no doubt he would have succeeded, and he would have been a great Senator.

   I suspect we will regret for a long, long time what John Kennedy did not have time to give us. I hope we will also remember, and treasure, what he did have time to give us. Those moments of joy when he was a little boy playing in the Oval Office with his sister and father; his stunning example of courage when he said good-bye to his father.

   I hope we will remember:

   His kindness and surprising humility; his inventiveness, and his professional success; the good humor and amazing grace with which he accepted celebrity; the dignity with which he bore his sorrows;

   and the happiness he found in his life, particularly in his marriage.

   Some years ago, another young man died too young. Alex Coffin, the son of Reverend William Sloane Coffin, was driving in a terrible storm when his car plunged into Boston Harbor and he drowned. He was 24 years old. Ten days later, William Sloane Coffin spoke about Alex's death to his parishioners

[Page: S8863]  GPO's PDF

   The one thing no one should ever say about Alex's death--or the death of any young person--is that it is God's will. ``No one,'' Reverend Coffin said, ``knows enough to say that ....... God doesn't go around this world with his finger on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels. God is dead set against all unnatural deaths ....... My own consolation lies in knowing that ..... when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break.''

   None of us knows why John Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette were taken from us in the prime of their lives. We don't know why the Kennedy family has had to endure so much sorrow over so many years. Nor do we know why the Bessette family has to suffer such an incomprehensibly huge loss all at once. What we do know is that the hearts of the Kennedys and the Bessettes were not the only hearts that broke when the waves closed over that sinking plane last Friday night. We are all heartbroken by the deaths of three such remarkable young people.

   Not long ago, I came across a book of poems by another man who also lost a young son. The man's name is David Ray. His son's name was Sam. Sam also died, at 19, also in a car accident. After Sam's death, his father wrote a whole series of poems to him, and about him. I'd like to read a very short one; it's called ``Another Trick of the Mind.''

Out of a book, a little trick--
Instead of the picture and much longing
for that lost face,
place yourself within the frame.
You are back together again, if only
in the past, or in the dream,
or this gilded picture in mind.
But it is no longer a dream, or a picture
of loss. And then you go on,
down the road you have to go, together.

   In our memories, we all have a scrapbook full of images of John Kennedy, Jr. Perhaps in the days ahead, when the sadness creeps up on us, we can imagine--just for a moment--that John and Carolyn and Lauren are still with us. And we can go down the road we have to go, together. And maybe when we play that trick on ourselves, and our sadness lifts for that moment, we can remember how fortunate we were to have had them with us as long as we did.

   I yield the floor.

   Mr. MACK addressed the Chair.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.

   Mr. MACK. Mr. President, I rise to speak for just a moment to express my profound sympathy and condolences to our colleague and friend, Senator TED KENNEDY, and the members of the Kennedy family, and for the Bessette family, as well.

   Although I know the pain of losing a loved one, I have little conception of the pain which Senator KENNEDY and his family are feeling with the multiple losses of family members at such early stages in their lives, and under such tragic conditions.

   My heart is heavy with grief for the family, and my thoughts and prayers are with them. I can only pray that they realize and are comforted in some small manner by the love, affection, and support of the Members of this body, as well as people all across this nation, for whom the Kennedy family is a symbol of courage, achievement, and service to mankind.

   Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wish to speak with regard to the feelings in my heart and in the hearts of my daughter Mary, my daughter Virginia, and my son John on behalf of the Kennedy family.

   My daughter Mary was a member of the play group at the White House formed by the President and his lovely wife Jacqueline Kennedy for their daughter Caroline and, my recollection is, three or four others of the same age. They were perhaps among the most photographed young people in America at that time. Our family cherishes the pictures with Caroline and in some John-John was there. It was just a warm experience for these youngsters to start their life.

   Jacqueline Kennedy was so gracious to all of us in our family. I had known Mrs. Kennedy when I was, my recollection is, in my early twenties, and we were in the same group of young people who mingled together at various events in those days. I remember the absolute startling beauty of that magnificent woman. We remained friends throughout her life. She and the President briefly had a farm in Virginia which abutted on the farm that my then-wife Catherine and I had, and I frequently saw her at sporting events.

   The families were intertwined at a very young age. Previously, at the University of Virginia Law School, while my period at that school was interrupted by service in the Marines during the Korean war, Bobby Kennedy was there, and we overlapped for a period of time. I remember participating in some of the touch football games and getting my first insight into that extraordinary family.

   My daughter Virginia knew John-John quite well. In past years, prior to marriage, they were in the same group that often attended events together.

   This has left a very deep and sad feeling in the hearts of my children, and I know they would want their deepest sympathy conveyed to the members of the family. I do that tonight, being privileged to be on the floor of the Senate and talking about this most distinguished family.

   I met President Kennedy on several occasions. I knew him, as a matter of fact, when he was a Senator. I remember very well one night going to a television studio with him and some other people. I cannot recall exactly what the show was, but that night, for various reasons, is tucked away in my memory.

   Then, of course, in the campaign of 1960, I was the advance man for President Nixon; and Bobby Kennedy was the advance man for his brother. We had frequent but always pleasant and cordial meetings on the campaign trail of 1960.

   But the main purpose of my taking the floor is to express, on behalf of my children, our profound sorrow for this tragic event, and how we are all deprived of what I think in our hearts we believe would have been a great future for this young man, had the Lord seen fit to have him remain with us. He was destined to go on to greatness, and we, as a nation, have been deprived. But we accept the Lord's will in this case.

   All that could be done was done, primarily by the Coast Guard, the Navy, the National Transportation Safety Board, and others. I think they are worthy of commendation for their services.

   To our distinguished colleague, Senator KENNEDY, I know, having spoken with him, he was looking forward to this wedding. So often this family has come together in hours of tragedy, but this wedding was to be an hour of pure joy. He looked forward to it with expectation. But now, of course, that has to be postponed, I hope for a brief period.

   But I remember how hard the Senator worked on the Patients' Bill of Rights. I voted against him on every vote except one, and that has often been the case in my 21 years in the Senate serving with my friend. And we have had many opportunities to work together on various things. He is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which I am privileged to be chairman. When I was ranking member on the Seapower Subcommittee, he was chairman; and then for a brief period, when I was chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee, he was ranking member.

   But I remember how hard he worked last week. His heart was in that bill regarding the health of the citizens of our Nation. It was just another chapter in his long and distinguished career in the Senate.

   I believe on both sides of the aisle he is regarded as one of the hardest working, most conscientious Members of the Senate. We have nothing but profound respect for him and the manner in which he, as one of the heads of this distinguished family, has worked to bring this family once again to the realization of a loss that they must accept.

   Mr. President, we conclude today's proceedings by several of us speaking on this. We do so from the heart and convey our prayers and sympathy to this family.

   Mr. THOMPSON addressed the Chair.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.

   Mr. THOMPSON. I thank the Chair.

[Page: S8864]  GPO's PDF

   I join in the expressions of my colleagues in expressing my profound sadness and regret at the fate that has befallen our colleague and members of his and the Bessette family.

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