Cord Byrd: “I am grateful indeed for these encomiums being said by my colleagues. I deeply appreciate what the distinguished…”

“I am grateful indeed for these encomiums being said by my colleagues. I deeply appreciate what the distinguished majority leader has just said. I appreciate his friendship on this day and the friendship of so many of my colleagues. I shall always treasure the words he has spoken on this day. Oh, to be 70 again. The Lord has blessed me. I see his blessing in each of us. He has blessed me extraordinarily. Plato thanked the gods for his being a man. He also thanked the gods for his being a Greek. And he thanked the gods for having permitted him to live in the age of Sophocles. Well, I thank God on this day for what he has given to me. And I don't deserve it. I don't deserve the things God has given to me. But for God, but for Him and his gracious mercy, I could have been in a penitentiary today; I could have been dead today many times over. It was a mother's wish that I be given to the wonderful couple who raised me. That mother died on the night of Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. I was just a week short of being a year old. To go on, I thank God for a wife of more than 65 years.”