Date: 1996-04-16
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentlewoman for giving me this time and to join my other colleagues in expressing our sense of loss individually. collectively as a Nation. and even the world. due to the loss of our friend. Ron Brown. Let me say first that I am mourning his loss because he was my friend. But we as a Nation lost a great American. I cannot add to the adjectives that have been mentioned or will be mentioned about Ron Brown. but I only would like to mention a couple or three of my personal remembrance of him. One was that he was a man that no task was too small. no challenge was too large. He did what he had to do. He did it in a gracious. eloquent manner also. always without fault. and I would like to remember also that the most minute things and the way that he handled items as a person. all we know as Secretary of Commerce. what he did and how he did it. and throughout the world and here. but before the last Democratic Convention. I called over to the Democratic Committee. and this is when he was chairman of that committee. that I wanted to be sure that some mention was made of agriculture in the speeches and at the convention. and I left it at that. The next afternoon I had a call from Ron Brown. which I never expected. I was just speaking with the people that were organizing the program. and he says. "Mr. Chairman. would you think that I would leave agriculture out of this convention?" I say. "No. I wouldnt have thought so. Ron. but I just wanted to be sure to remind whoever it was organizing the program." He says. "Well. agriculture will be addressed. and you will be a speaker." And so it was. And so it was. How it got from the person I spoke to and much lower levels to Ron Brown I do not know. but the only explanation is that he was looking. at everything that was going on. And so I had the great honor of speakingat the national convention because of the request of Ron Brown. Again. also when we were working so hard on NAFTA. most of you. not all of you. remember how he worked on the Hill. how he worked throughout the United States. But I wanted to have a joint meeting with our friends from Mexico. and I appealed to him. if he could be of assistance. His answer to me was. "When do you want me?" So we set a date. We invited his counterpart from Mexico. and they met in McAllen and Hidalgo. TX. and we had a great meeting. and there I saw him working. the people from Mexico and the people from south Texas. But one of the most interesting things. and it has been mentioned before. he had a way with young people. children. At the meeting that we had. open meeting with several hundred people. it was a young person that walked up to him and visited with him. and he visited back as if that young man or that young woman was the most important persoff at that event that day. And there we had Secretary of Commerce from Mexico. the Secretary of Commerce from the United States. assistants. needless to say. the. local Congressman. but to him at that point was. and I recall this very vividly. that young lady that was asking him questions about the Department of Commerce and. I think in the end. how she could get a job at the Department of Commerce. He never flinched or missed a beat. and he says come see me. I will be happy to talk to you. That is the kind of individual we personally will miss. Certainly the country has lost a tremendous American. the world has lost a tremendous individual. and.I think it has been mentioned before. but the legacy of Ron Brown should be what we continue doing that he did not have time to do. And I hope that that would be our dedication. I extend on behalf of my district and myself my condolences to the family. to all his family. and we share because it was our loss and we will mourn him. But more so. we should dedicate ourselves to that which he tried to do. To him there was no black. no brown. no White. no red. Everyone was a creature of God from his beginning to the very end. and that he died on a mission trying to enhance U.S. commerce. but yet trying to help downtrodden people was probably the major culmination. the major thing. of what Ron Brown was. There was no small. there was no large. there was no one but the individual before him. and I saw him do that. and we will forever remember him in that manner. I thank the gentlewoman.