Charles Rangel: “let me thank my friend from Michigan for managing this bill for my dear friend Ron Brown. One of the questions that I…”

“let me thank my friend from Michigan for managing this bill for my dear friend Ron Brown. One of the questions that I have found most difficult to answer was what made Ron Brown so different. I have to admit that I do not really have the answer, but one of the things that I think that made him different was the depth of which he loved this country and the fact that the country gave him an opportunity to show just how good he was. When you think about that, you have to take a look at the history of our country, where we were and where we are going, and was Ron Brown not the right guy at the right time. Everything that we have been taught in this country in our history deals with our relationship with England and with Europe. But now that they have their Common Market, we have to find other places to sell our goods: Central America, South America, Africa, China, all of these markets. And we have to do it in a way that we are not so hung up with our European connection as much as we are with our human being connection, and that was what Ron Brown was all about. Ron Brown saw despair. He saw the need for economic development. He knew what a job would do for a person in terms of family values and dignity and planning a family and having a place to live. When he went to these countries, he did not just see a place to sell airplanes.…”