S1728 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 11, 2002 Lastly, I would like to address one ’s friar, firefighter, warrior for the Lord with aids in a small Chelsea studio apart- change to the legislation since Senate and New Yorker—I can’t help believing that ment. Or arm in arm with our missing hero passage last year. Since , Erin and Dymphna, your beloved Emmet, Patty Brown, comforting the family of hero who wanted to be a priest at the age of four, firefighters like the late Captain John we have all recognized that the way our beloved Mychal—in the swirling and Drennan in a Hospital burn unit, the Government has done business may fiery wind tunnel of the majestic twin tow- Mychal was equally at home in the brown change due to security concerns. In the ers, helmet off in respect to our creator, lift- robe and sandals of a friar or the uniform of past, we have made efforts to expand ed his lovely tenor voice and uttered a final a fire officer and always in an the amounts of information made Alleluia as he rode the winds aloft, smiling encouraging and positive way motivating us available to the public, including en- broadly as he shot one final mortal glance at to do bigger and better things. couraging electronic access to more what his model St. Francis of Assisi called He was comfortable visiting President and data and information on pipelines. ‘‘burning sun with golden beam and silver Senator Clinton or President and Mrs. Bush moon with softer gleam.’’ in the East Wing of the White House, the Today, we must balance the concerns Father Mike, it’s not that we hardly knew portico of Gracie Mansion with Mayors of national security with the needs of ya that makes you leaving this earth so Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani and the Car- law-abiding citizens who live and work hard. It’s that we all knew you so well and dinal’s Residence with the late Cardinal alongside pipelines. We have included depended on you so much that hurts so O’Connor and now Cardinal Egan. language which, in my opinion, fairly much. But he was really at home in a Times addresses the concerns of the public in Though you were neither a husband nor a Square shelter for single mothers conducting father, you became a model for husbands and obtaining pipeline safety information Midnight Mass on Christmas eve, cradling a fathers. Though you never trained on a hose small plastic doll in its role as the baby and enables the Government to safe- on a fire or experienced the pain of being a Jesus or in a firehouse kitchen helping re- guard information which could be used firefighter’s widow, you became a model for unite a couple whose marriage was strained to do harm or for terrorist activities. firefighters and the widowed. Though up by the job. This church is full of families he This bill is good legislation. It will until recently you never felt the anxiety of united. Being at Ground Zero—wherever it require greater safety and oversight of sickness, you became a guide for the sick. was—was his life, and his death. our Nation’s pipeline system. The bill You taught us that the St. Francis Prayer Mychal loved Christ and loved his family also allows for a greater degree of pub- was not merely a bookmark but a living, and yes, he loved us, the people of New York. speaking roadmap for our daily lives as New This morning we unfortunately see only his lic participation in the process of pipe- Yorkers. We saw your greatness up close and casket. But I dreamt the other night of line safety, without jeopardizing na- personal. But we respectfully ask why were Mychal, walking and walking and walking; I tional security, updates the penalties you so strong? guess the constant motion of his life: In a that would be levied for misconduct As Father Pecci pointed out last night at power walk from 31st Street and Seventh Av- and provides whistle blower protection the wake service maybe it was the countless enue to Coney Island and the Atlantic Ocean, for employees who reveal misconduct. windows and shoes you polished and shined in his crisply pressed uniform on a blustery The bill also provides for Federal in- on Dean Street in as a child. Or Patrick’s day waving, to the crowd was it the constancy and strength of exam- vestment in research which will help us like a matinee idol, hands outstretched to ple of your mother who balanced the needs of hug our children for a moment, flashing a be more efficient and effective in pro- a dying husband, a house and three young knowing, almost shy smile and then jogging viding a safer and more secure system. children in the Depression? back to the line of march. Walking the I urge my colleagues to support this I have not seen your sisters Erin and streets greeting on a first name basis the measure. Dymphna for some time. So I asked homeless and friendless, many of whom wore Dymphna last night, what made Mychal f the Christmas and birthday gifts that many great? She said it best: ‘‘With Michael there in this congregation wrapped so nicely for TRIBUTE TO FATHER MYCHAL F. were no narrow truths. There was only wide Mychal to wear. He loved to watch the fire- JUDGE open possibility.’’ As I stepped outside onto works, a ride on a fire boat, a thick deep 32nd Street near Penn Station last night to piece of apple pie with ice cream. Both most (At the request of Mr. DASCHLE, the get some air, I was struck by the wide world of all, he loved the call to service, the ro- following statement was ordered to be of possibilities that Mychal lived in. I no- mance of duty, the necessity of honor. He printed in the RECORD.) ticed how much more alive the street has be- was a bridge between people. and fire- ∑ Mrs. CLINTON. Madam President, I come in just in twenty-four hours. A saxo- fighters, Christians and Jews, able and dis- submit the following statement of phone could be heard—‘‘Amazing Grace’’— abled. He grafted spirituality onto our Bill of Peter James Johnson, Jr., delivered at the musician played. The smell of fried food Rights. in the air. Taxis racing down the street. Men the funeral mass for Father Mychal F. You see, Mychal was proud to be an Amer- and women laughing in conversation near a ican. Not in the quaint sense of a Norman Judge in New York City on September parked delivery truck. Mychal would say Rockwell painting or in your face flag waver, 15, 2001, for printing in the RECORD to ‘‘How marvelous. What a strong and dynamic although flag waving is good too. commemorate the 6-month anniversary people we are!’’ And I looked at the faces on I recall two connected events to dem- of the many lives so tragically lost on the street behind us. In Mychal’s words: onstrate his palpable pride. I urged Mychal September 11. ‘‘Peter look at these faces. Brown and black to become the Fire , to fill late The statement follows: and yellow and white. Such good minds, such Friar Father Julian Deeken’s large shoes. strong hands, such hard workers.’’ Shortly after he assumed his duties, there REMARKS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BY PETER ‘‘Such a resilient city. There is nothing was a report of a ship run aground, and yes, J. JOHNSON, JR., AT THE FUNERAL MASS OF like a New Yorker. We’re back.’’ In that mo- even a landing of Chinese nationals with REV. MYCHAL JUDGE, O.F.M., FIRE DEPART- ment I had an understanding of the incessant guns, according to the Park Police, in the MENT OF NEW YORK, CHAPLAIN, SEPTEMBER activity that Mychal often heard from his Rockaways. I was an honorary firefighter 15, 2001, ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHURCH, room on 31st Street. The same vitality that and pro bono adviser to Mayor Dinkins, and NEW YORK CITY, so energized him even when he was bone so Mychal called me, said he would be by to Your Eminence, Cardinal Egan, President tired from caring for the families of the vic- get me in a few minutes and we took off in Clinton, Senator Clinton, Mayor Dinkins, tims of Flight 800 when he would answer the the middle of the night. Mr. Controller, Mr. Public Advocate, Fam- phone or pager and respond to an emergency Just as we started to get to the Brooklyn ily, Friends, Firefighters and Friends. to support a stricken firefighter. Battery Tunnel, the radio started to crackle ‘‘Don’t worry about me. Help the thou- And that was Mychal too. He naturally saw with confirmation of a large ship aground sands.’’ Mychal says to us. the very best of himself in others. And in a with passengers in the water. Mychal gunned I see him kneeling gently, hear him speak- strange way we slowly but surely began to the Chevy, hit the lights and sirens, both ing in a firm and lilting whisper, his large see a little bit of Mychal in all of us. His dy- which reflected and reverberated off the tun- hands making reassuring contact with a namic strength, his good mind and his strong nel walls. I felt like I was in the middle of dying firefighter, his warm eyes focused and hands were always in evidence. Whether he Studio 54. I said ‘‘Mike, what are you doing? loving and deep, communicating the wisdom was helping lift his dear friend paralyzed Slow down.’’ He looked straight ahead of almost seventy years and the spirituality hero Detective Steven McDonald onto a laughed and said: ‘‘No this is good. I’m not of a millennium. Enveloped in the rough stone road in Northern Ireland, to go sure what we’ve got here but we can do good unshakeable concentration of the prayers he another ten miles on the path to peace and things together.’’ knew and lived so faithfully, shrouded in his reconciliation. Or riding Splash Mountain at I’ll never forget what we saw that chilly own mystical but practical Catholic belief, Disney with Conor McDonald, who helps morning. Helicopters in the air. A large bro- oblivious to the risk of harm that rained serve the mass. Or at the bedside of his friar ken ship battered by the waves off shore and from the sky, he died as he lived, trying to friend forever, Patty Fitzgerald, in an Israeli a beach full of shaking, shivering and soaked save a life, to save a soul in our City on a hospital—fifty years of friendship on Satur- Chinese men who had paid dearly and almost sunny, not so perfect September morning. day. Or anointing the forehead of a sick man with their lives to reach the safe haven of March 11, 2002 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1729 America. They did not speak a word of sorrow filled with the bitter tears of our loss, Marilyn Seichter, who passed away on English and he did not speak Chinese, but it we will tend to our garden, emboldened by Feb. 10 of Huntington’s Disease. As the did not deter Mychal. Within a few minutes the faith and trust in God you exemplified first female head of both the State bar he was handing out blankets, coffee and tell- and from which the joy and happiness and association and the State Ethics Com- ing jokes. And they laughed. An immigration hope you aspired to will flower again. In an officer warned him of the dangers of disease even more resplendent but Mychal Judge less mission, she was a pioneer for women from the men—tuberculosis, hepatitis. American century.∑ in the legal profession. Her brilliant Mychal said thank you, ignored the warning f career and life came to an end far too and continued on as he was inclined to do. early, at the age of 56. We returned home to later that TRIBUTE TO COL. CYRIL R. Marilyn Seichter earned her law de- morning and ate an enormous breakfast, RESCORLA gree from the University of Con- ‘‘Mychal, you’re a bright guy. They could be (At the request of Mr. DASCHLE, the very sick.’’ To which he replied: ‘‘When I necticut in 1970, and went on to prac- travel half way round the world I get a blan- following statement was ordered to be tice family law for 25 years as a part- ket and a cup of coffee. They’re our guests printed in the RECORD.) ner with the law firm of Hyman, Can- and they deserve no less. They only want ∑ Mr. CORZINE. Madam President, on tor, Seichter and Klau in Hartford. She what we were born into.’’ As usual Mychal the 6-month anniversary of a terrible spent her career fighting for women, had done good things. tragedy, I wish to honor a man whose children and families in Connecticut. Maybe we know why: A few days after July unfaltering courage and generous spirit 4th, our daughters Blanche and Veronica, In 1971, fresh out of law school, she showed the world the best of humanity, joined a team of lawyers in bringing an eight and six, received a handwritten note Colonel Cyril Richard Rescorla. addressed to them. Blanche recognized the abortion rights case against the State distinctive note paper and handwriting and On September 11, our Nation was at- of Connecticut. This case had a pro- read to her sister at the kitchen table: ‘‘Fri- tacked in ways none of us ever thought found influence on the Supreme Courts day evening, July 6, 2001, 10:00 p.m. My dear- possible. Many Americans have been decision in Roe vs. Wade. Later in her est Blanche and Veronica Felicity. Earlier affected profoundly by these events, career, she represented the National this evening I walked to the new walk along and I grieve with all of those who have Organization for Women in a lawsuit to the Hudson-Little West 12th Street to the lost loved ones. At the same time, I stop newspapers from distinguishing Battery. It is a wonderful promenade and a have been heartened to see, in the great place for Bladers—Someday both of between jobs for men and jobs for midst of such destruction and despair, women in help wanted sections. you will be most proficient at that and you’ll a nation united. be there often’’ And they will. On that fateful day, Colonel Rescorla Marilyn Seichter’s accomplishments The letter continued: ‘‘I sat and gazed at include serving as president of the Con- Lady Liberty—so majestic with her torch led thousands to safety before his own death in the south tower of the World necticut Women’s Education and Legal burning brightly and thought of the great Fund, and as a member of an ad hoc feelings of joy and happiness and hope that Trade Center. But valiant service to my mother and father experienced when they his country was nothing new to Rick, committee to advise Governor Ella saw her as their boat came into New York as he was known to his family and Grasso on judicial appointments. Harbor—it was their dream come true. 1921— friends. A decorated veteran, he served I would like to express my condo- oh so long ago. They had no idea of all the lences to her sister-in-law, Jacqueline blessings and a few sorrows that lie ahead of in Vietnam as a platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, inspiring Seichter; her niece, Deborah Seichter; them. They were so brave and had such faith her nephew, Daniel Seichter; and her and trust in God, that, that he brought them awe in fellow soldiers and earning the to these shores and that he would care for reputation of a ‘‘battlefield legend.’’ As grandnephew, Jacob Seichter; as well them.’’ a testament to his bravery, Rick’s as her many close friends and admirers. The note paper and the distinctive pen- image is forever immortalized on the She was truly one of Connecticut’s ∑ manship were those of Mychal Judge, friar cover of We Were Soldiers Once . . . treasures, and she will be missed. and firefighter. And it was then when I heard And Young, the book by Lieutenant our oldest daughter read these simply elo- f quent words to our youngest daughter that I General Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. began to understand Mychal’s rush to the Galloway that has been made into the Rockaways. recently released movie ‘‘We Were Sol- THAKSIN’S THIN SKIN As he and the late Captain Grethel and diers.’’ Unwavering in even the most ∑ Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, late Firefighter Weinberg raced down Sev- horrific situations, Rick gave his men the crackdown on foreign reporters in enth Avenue did Mychal think about his lit- courage in battle, and provided comfort Thailand is both troubling and dis- tle rollerbladers, Blanche and Veronica? Did and safety to his civilian colleagues in his mind rush back to pleasant barbecues heartening. While I am pleased with and lasagna dinners in Northern New Jersey? both attacks on the World Trade Cen- the decision of Prime Minister Thaksin Did he think of the woman who came to this ter. Shinawatra to allow reporters from the church and presented Father John Pierce As Vice President for corporate secu- Far Eastern Economic Review to re- with a tiny American flag in honor of rity at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & main in Thailand, damage to that Mychal who had guided her so well when she Co., Rick devised the evacuation plans country’s reputation as a democratic lost her son last year or of Erin or Dymphna for the World Trade Center and, in the enclave in a neighborhood of oppressive and the prospect of a trip to see them in 1993 bombing, ensured that everyone regimes has already been done. Maryland, reading books and just talking? Of had evacuated before he would leave the people he had not yet met who would The task now before the Prime Min- need his services at the friary that day upon the building. A testament to his self- ister is to rebuild the confidence of the his return? Of how he could be made an in- less generosity, Rick’s colleagues are world’s democracies—and in particular strument of peace or consolation or har- sure he would have been the last person America—that he respects the rule of mony? out of the building on September 11 if law and freedoms of speech and Or as he pondered the blazing twin towers the situation had been different. thought. and the desperate New Yorkers ending their Rick’s altruism extended into every suffering by jumping sometimes arms linked corner of his life. As husband, father, As former chairman and now ranking from the inferno, did he try to summon and son, friend, and teacher, Rick faced member of the Foreign Operations Ap- recreate the innocent but great feelings of propriations Subcommittee, I have joy and happiness and hope that his parents even chronic illness with humility and valor. His life serves as a model of her- tried to encourage a variety of inde- felt when they saw the Lady in the Harbor? pendent media programs throughout We’ll not know the answer on this earth. oism. May his honored memory be a But we do know that Mychal died as he lived constant reminder of America’s great Southeast Asia and the former Soviet and as his parents lived—bravely, having courage and resolve.∑ Union. In fact, I have been proud to such faith and trusting God and loving this dedicate funding to a program run by land that God made. f Western Kentucky University’s award Mychal, you taught so many of us that we ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS winning school of journalism which can only be enslaved, victimized or terror- provides professional training to for- ized by our demons if we so consent. In the eign journalists. I would suggest that coming months we will call upon your mem- TRIBUTE TO MARILYN SEICHTER ory and your inspired example of faith, sac- there are some Thai government offi- rifice and determination and rely upon your ∑ Mr. DODD. Madam President, I am cials who would benefit from Western’s prayers to help strengthen and console and saddened today to hear about the death tutelage on the import of a free and raise all of us up. Today, from the well of our of a great citizen of Connecticut, open press in a democracy.