Thank You To The People Of The 11th Congressional District Of Pennsylvania
Madam Speaker, over the last 26 years it has been an enormous honor and privilege to represent the people of the 11th congressional district of Pennsylvania as a member of this body, and I rise today to express my eternal appreciation to…
Madam Speaker, over the last 26 years it has been an enormous honor and privilege to represent the people of the 11th congressional district of Pennsylvania as a member of this body, and I rise today to express my eternal appreciation to the people who gave me the extraordinary opportunity to serve them.
The youngest son of a lawyer and homemaker who was also a teacher, I was blessed to grow up in a loving, supportive family who
encouraged me to pursue even the most ambitious goals. Of all the values my parents imparted to their children, none was more important than education. My father, A. Peter Kanjorski, Jr., graduated from the Wharton School class of 1919 before completing law school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1922, while my mother Wanda Nedbalski Kanjorski graduated from Wyoming Seminary before obtaining her degree from Bloomsburg College. All four of my siblings also completed college; Wendy from Marywood College, Aloise from the Connecticut College for Women, A. Peter III from the Wharton School as well as the University of Pennsylvania law school, and Charie from the University of Florida. This tradition has continued to my parents' grandchildren, as all 13 have earned their college degrees and some have pursued graduate degrees. My daughter, Nancy, for example, has earned her doctorate in geophysics.
In light of the importance my parents placed on education, therefore, it was extremely distressing for them to realize that at the age of 10 I was still having great difficulty learning how to read, because of what I now realize was most probably an undiagnosed case of dyslexia. My mother and older sisters, most especially my sister Allie, became my personal tutors. Under their guidance, I became a voracious reader and eagerly consumed historical biographies. From reading about Arthur Vanderberg and Daniel Webster, I learned about congressional pages and convinced Congressman Ed Bonin, the representative for the 11th district of Pennsylvania, to appoint me in 1953. I met my lifelong best friend Bill Emerson when we started as pages together, and we were unfortunate witnesses to the first terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol when Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire on the floor of the House on March 1, 1954.
Bill returned to Congress in 1981 as a Republican representative from Missouri, and I followed him 4 years later as a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania. Our political views were starkly different, but we respected one another's views and disagreed agreeably.
Those of us lucky enough to be citizens of the United States are privileged to be experiencing the noblest experiment the world has ever known: democratic self-governance. As representatives of the people, we in Congress must be the guardians of that experiment, and in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ensure that it does not perish from this earth. Our constituents have entrusted us to do our very best to make the United States a better place, the reason every one of us sought to serve in Congress. It is a sacred trust, and one I hope that no Member of Congress ever forgets.
The people of the 11th congressional district of Pennsylvania gave me a gift for which I will be forever grateful, and to them I would like to say thank you.