Elizabeth Furse: “I think I would like to address my remarks to the Ron Dellums who is known outside of this body. As a former peace…”

“I think I would like to address my remarks to the Ron Dellums who is known outside of this body. As a former peace activist, a person who ran a peace institute, Ron Dellums was the shining home for us that there was somebody there who cared about peace, who stood for peace, who worked for peace. That was so important to those of us outside this body. When I came to this body, the greatest honor that I have had in my few years here is that I served while Ron Dellums was Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. I served on that committee. And he acted so fairly, with such honesty, that there was truly space in that committee for a peacenik like myself and the most hawkish other Member. He treated us all with respect and all with dignity. But I want to tell a little thing about a personal insight that I think I may have on the impact of Ron Dellums, an impact beyond this place. I think we, as Members of Congress, we all think we are pretty well known. Well, we might be well known in our own district. Maybe some of us are known in our own district. But I had the great honor to travel with Ron to South Africa for the great moment when Nelson Mandella, who he had helped free, became the president of South Africa. And I noticed there that little children who were around us would come up to Ron. They knew him. They knew him not as a Congressman. They knew him as a man of peace who was a warrior for justice.”