Tribute To The Honorable Wayne Owens, Former Member Of Congress From Utah
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. I was horrified to learn of Wayne Owens' death last week when I was at C- SPAN, just about to go on their morning program, and saw the news come across the bottom of the screen that…
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. I was horrified to learn of Wayne Owens' death last week when I was at C- SPAN, just about to go on their morning program, and saw the news come across the bottom of the screen that Wayne had died the day before.
Wayne and I were neighbors when I was first elected to Congress. He and his wife lived right next door to my wife and I in Arlington in rented homes. He was then chief staff assistant to Senator Kennedy. I got to know Wayne first as a friend and then I got to know him as an even stronger friend when he became a colleague of so many of us in the House. And after he left this House, as has been mentioned, he devoted a good deal of his time to the cause of peace, especially in the Middle East.
He was a strongly religious man. He prided himself on being a Christian and he took the responsibilities that come with that very seriously. One of those responsibilities, in his view, was the obligation that all of us have as the more comfortable members of the human race on this planet to reach out to try to help those who are not in such comfortable circumstances. He would have been appalled to see the lack of a sense of shared sacrifice that so often permeates what political leaders do these days.
But he never forgot his obligations to himself, to his maker, and to his fellow man to take into account always the needs of others. He was one of the least
selfish human beings I have ever known, and he believed passionately that in the Middle East, the center of so many of the world's religions, that there ought to be a way to bring the parties closer to each other to avoid the violence and bloodshed that has plagued that region of the world for so long.
He is a tremendous loss not just to his family, but to all of us who took daily inspiration from his lack of cynicism and his profound human decency.
I thank the gentleman very much for holding this special order, and I appreciate also the comments of my colleagues in tribute to this wonderful man.