Charles Rangel: “I thank all Members for participating in this tribute to someone whom we all believe was our best friend. This is so…”

“I thank all Members for participating in this tribute to someone whom we all believe was our best friend. This is so very unusual in a Congress that does not allow us to meet often or travel very much together that each one of us treasures so much those special personal relationships that we have. At a time when hundreds of thousands of lives are being lost in Asia and in the Middle East, God has a way of reducing all of this and making it a lot more personal when it appears in the middle of the night. He just snatches away someone that you may have just taken for granted. Certainly the loss of Bob had everyone startled. How could a person with such fierce commitment to legislation and to the Congress who was so involved, and appeared to be looking so hard toward the next challenge, how could God have just snatched him away without any warning? But I have found over the years that it eases the pain, it does not remove it, but it eases the pain if during times like this you can think of how fortunate you were that in your lifetime you came across a person like Bob Matsui.”