Rob Andrews: “I thank my friend for yielding. Sometimes the quietest voices are the ones that have the greatest impact. Donald Payne…”

“I thank my friend for yielding. Sometimes the quietest voices are the ones that have the greatest impact. Donald Payne always spoke quietly, humbly; but as we reflect on his life, the impact is monumental. Tonight, there are villages in Africa where people have self- determination, human dignity, education, and health care because of the impact of his voice and his life. There are people working in the city of Newark, the counties of Essex and Union and Hudson because of businesses he helped to bring and schools he helped to build and progress he helped to make. As we heard my friend Bill Pascrell talk about, there are people in Ireland from very different heritages and backgrounds that Donald brought here who are celebrating his life because of the reach of his voice and of his life. I think, most importantly, the impact of his voice is the hollowness and sorrow that we all feel here in this institution because the quietness of his voice brought us together at times of discord and stress. Donald believed passionately in his progressive ideology, but he believed with equal passion in tolerance for those who disputed it. Donald fought fiercely for the causes in which he and I believed and he and others believed, but he never fought the rights of others to express differing views. He cared very personally about his causes, but he never took personally those who disagreed with him.…”