Christopher Shays: “I definitely want to be a part of this tribute and join with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle who are here to…”

“I definitely want to be a part of this tribute and join with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle who are here to express their love and admiration for a truly great American, a truly fine, outstanding Secretary of the Cabinet, the Secretary of Commerce. I would first want to express my love and admiration for his wife Alma and for his very distinguished son Michael and distinguished daughter Tracey. I was not able to be at the funeral for Mr. Brown because I had two constituents who also died on that plane. And if I could I would like to just express my love and admiration for Claudio Elia, who died on that plane, and for his two magnificent children, Kristin and Marc, who just were real soldiers during their dealing with their grief, and for his magnificent wife Susan, and also for Robert Donovan, who also died, and for his truly outstanding two children, Kara and Kevin, who just seem to deal with this agony and grief in a way that I could not help admire, and for his precious wife Peg, two people from the 4th Congressional District who died on that plane because they wanted to be with Ron Brown on this very important and, in fact, dangerous mission to bring trade and economic growth and some sense of hope to people in Yugoslavia, to give them a sense that maybe their day would be a little brighter. I have admiration for Ron Brown for leading this.…”