Trent Lott: “what happened in the Capitol last Friday afternoon was a tragedy for our Nation. But for all of us here it was something…”

“what happened in the Capitol last Friday afternoon was a tragedy for our Nation. But for all of us here it was something more. It was a death in the family. We work here every day together, as Senators and as officers of the Senate, staff members, pages, policemen. We see them, and we pass them, over and over again. We talk to them. Some of them we get to know quite well. I have had the occasion myself to develop a very personal relationship with the man that was my security detail when I was the whip in the House, a man named George Awkward. He did for me what John Gibson did for Tom DeLay as the whip in the House. We got to be very personal friends. He had pizza at night, when we would get home late, with my wife and with me and my children. So I know how much these men and women put their lives on the line, and how much they mean to us on an individual basis, but also how far too often we walk past them; we take them for granted; we don't realize that they really are there for a very important purpose--protection of our constituents and of all of us and of this magnificent building in which we serve. Detective John Michael Gibson and Private First Class Jacob Joseph Chestnut were members of our congressional family. They died defending us. They died defending this Capitol building, this temple of law, where armed violence is a sacrilege against our democratic institutions. So much has been said in their praise, and yet we need to say more.…”