Lynn C. Woolsey: “And, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for letting us do this. I promise I would have been here earlier, but I was on…”

“And, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for letting us do this. I promise I would have been here earlier, but I was on an airplane coming from a very rainy, rainy California. I tell Ron this story because it made such an impact on me. Ron Dellums came to my district and spoke in front of a group of my friends. He spoke outside and the birds stopped singing because they were listening to him. There was not a person listening that had a dry eye. Every single person in that group, and there was at least 100 some people, had a story that they remembered about Ron Dellums and what he has done for this country. So then I had the fortune to come here and work with you, Ron, and I am so privileged that that has been part of my growing up here as a very junior Member of this Congress. And I appreciate you for daring all of us in this House of Representatives by giving us the challenges to go and do more than we thought we should do and could do. You dared us to not just settle for what is politically possible. You dared us and you inspired us to think beyond the day-to-day battles, to look at the big picture; to think about what we are doing and how it relates to our children, our families, our seniors, our communities. You did not ever have one small vision of what you were doing and talking about.…”