Patrick Leahy: “as I listen to my friend from Wyoming and my friend from California and others who are speaking in this Chamber today, I…”

“as I listen to my friend from Wyoming and my friend from California and others who are speaking in this Chamber today, I am reminded of what I heard throughout the State of Vermont this past weekend while I was home--whether it was people who stopped me in a grocery store and just wanted to reach out and touch somebody-- perhaps we would embrace for a moment--or whether it was coming out of mass on Sunday at the church, where the same thing occurred--the people have felt such sorrow and shock. There is no other way you could express yourself. Those of us who have grown up seeing the space program have seen so many of the triumphs. I still remember our own colleague, Senator John Glenn, a man I was elected with in the same year, in his amazing orbit of the Earth. Then later, when he was well into his 70s, he had another trip as an astronaut. We saw that too. We saw man's first steps on the moon, of which every one of us remembers exactly where we were when that occurred. We also remember exactly where we were when the Challenger was destroyed. And I suspect we will always remember exactly where we were when we got the news about the Columbia space shuttle. Today we are so connected automatically, with live television, radio, and friends and neighbors calling us when something such as this happens, a tragedy which unites not only the whole country but the whole world. Everybody seems to know it almost immediately.…”