Political Quotes

“Only 3 years before Senator Stevens earned his wings, Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., of the Royal Canadian Air Force composed a poem after being struck by the sheer wonder of flying a test flight at 30,000 feet. This poem was sent home to John Magee's parents just a few days before his death. It is entitled ``High Flight.'' I will close with those words in remembrance of an American hero, Senator Ted Stevens: ``Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth ``And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; ``Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth ``Of sun-split clouds--and done a hundred things ``You have not dreamed of--wheeled and soared and swung ``High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there ``I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung ``My eager craft through footless halls of air. ``Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, ``I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace ``Where never lark, or even eagle flew-- ``And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod ``The high untresspassed sanctity of space, ``Put out my hand and touched the face of God.'' On August 9, 2010, Ted Stevens slipped the bonds of Earth one final time. He died, literally and figuratively, with his boots on, among friends, enjoying the rugged and dangerous beauty of nature and of the State of loved. We will miss his leadership and his friendship and the Nation will long be indebted to him for his lifetime of service.”