On the recordJanuary 12, 2015
As the senior member of the New York delegation, it affords me a great honor to come from the Empire State of New York, where we have so many people we are proud of, but because Mario Cuomo represented the true nature of the American Dream, we from the State of New York would just like to laud the contributions that he has made, not just to Queens, where he was raised, not just to the great State of New York, but to those democratic principles that all of us believe in, and no one could articulate it the way our great Governor has. So many people have come to this country from faraway places, and somehow, when they succeed, some change their names, some change their attitudes, and some just absolutely forget how they got here and how they were perceived; but Mario Cuomo was different. Mario was so proud of the fact that his parents were immigrants. He was proud of the fact that they came here with nothing but a hope and a dream that their son would succeed. He succeeded in everything that he touched, from neighborhood arbitration, to secretary of state, to Lieutenant Governor; and, of course, the Nation remembers him as Governor and as one who articulated the principles not of the Democratic Party, but of the entire country at a Democratic Convention.…
