On the recordDecember 4, 2014
I come today with a spirit of reflection and optimism about our future. I am also compelled towards an honest assessment of where we are as a body--of the promise of what we can achieve when we don't shy away from compromise and what we can't achieve when we refuse to compromise. I also have very much on my mind that the job of public service is very hard work, and it is an extremely noble and honorable calling. Here in the U.S. Senate we have the unique ability and responsibility to do very big things: ignite innovation in our schools and industries, grow and protect a healthy country, foster global change borne from policies that lead the globe. At the same time, we have the opportunity to touch individual lives with case management. One on one, with casework, we often reach people in their darkest hour. I love the Senate. I love the Senate. I love the intensity of the work, the gravity of the issues, and I love fighting for West Virginians here. I learned to love this fight, as many of you know, as a 27-year-old VISTA worker in the tiny coal community of Emmons, WV. It was a place that set my moral compass and gave me direction, where everything in my real life actually began. It is where I learned how little I knew about the problems people faced there and in other places in the country, how little I knew, and what a humbling experience that was for me. My time there was transformative. It explains every policy I have pursued and every vote I have cast.…
