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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE, Vol. 152, Pt. 18 December 8, 2006 Right December 8, 2006 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE, Vol. 152, Pt. 18 23579 funds are not grants by any definition. their years together. They expanded There being no objection, the mate- Rather, they constitute income for the their family beyond their 100 huskies rial was ordered to be printed in the State—simply the State’s fair share of with the birth of their daughters Tekla RECORD, as follows: revenues generated seaward of its and Chisana. Susan embraced mother- THE HOLTON-ARMS SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT coast. States have, in at least two oc- hood with even greater passion, energy ADDRESS—JUNE 1999 casions; used funds provided under the and devotion than she had in her life as Thank you very much. I’m very honored Mineral Lands Leasing Act as cost- a musher. And the girls blossomed in a and excited to be speaking here today. And share for other Federal programs. At home and cabin filled with books, thank you to the class for asking me. It’s es- this time in Louisiana’s recovery, I en- music, Native Alaskan culture, and, of pecially exciting for me to be here because of my great friend, Lily Stevens, who I watched vision this as a very much needed ave- course, dogs. grow up since she was just a tiny little girl. nue for the State of Louisiana, as its In December 2005, Susan was diag- I certainly would be surprised to hear if citizens regain their feet following the nosed with leukemia and began the any of you were going to follow me in my destruction of Hurricanes Katrina and toughest fight of her life. At the time, chosen occupation as a dog musher. So I Rita. her husband David said ‘‘We’re going to don’t think that’s why you have asked me Mr. President, I suggest the absence do everything we can to make sure she here. I live in Alaska about a hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle. I own a hundred of a quorum. has the best care. She does have the best attitude. Someone said this might dogs, and I travel about 6,000 miles a year by The PRESIDING OFFICER. The sled and dog team. So my life is very dif- clerk will call the roll. be a tough disease, but this leukemia ferent from what we see here. I thought, The legislative clerk proceeded to hasn’t met Susan Butcher yet.’’ when I was asked to speak on achievement, call the roll. Throughout her treatment in Seattle, that it would be easy to do. But getting to Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask Susan actively campaigned to help oth- the soul of what motivates a person to excel unanimous consent that the order for ers by increasing donations to the Na- cuts to the core of each person’s dreams, de- the quorum call be rescinded. tional Marrow Donor Program and sup- sires and beliefs. Sometimes it goes beyond port for leukemia and lymphoma re- words. So I will speak for myself, and try The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without and tell you how and why things have objection, it is so ordered. search. Over the past 20 years, Susan often worked for me. f It’s really exciting to see such youth and traveled to Washington—bunking with promise before me. And it certainly takes TRIBUTE TO SUSAN BUTCHER our family—sled dogs, cat, kids and all. me back to my high school graduation in Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this Presidents Reagan and George Bush, 1972, when I was in Cambridge, Massachu- past August, Alaska lost a great hero Sr., invited her and her lead dogs to setts. I was very good in math and sciences. and the Stevens family lost a cherished the White House. She drove her team But I am dyslexic, so I struggled very hard in friend. Susan Butcher was the four- in the inaugural parades—the last time school. My strong loves were the wilderness, animals, science, and sports. I had a hobby time Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 2001, with both her daughters in the sled. With her lead dog, Granite, she for the last couple of years of working with Champion and the first and only my two Alaskan huskies, trying to teach woman to mush her team to the sum- was welcomed by Justice Sandra Day them to be sled dogs. I feel that I was very mit of Mt. McKinley—with her friend O’Connor to her Supreme Court cham- lucky because even at that young age, I and Iditarod race founder, Joe bers, and to the Pentagon by her friend knew my true passion. It was to live in the Redington, Sr. She is the reason we say General Colin Powell, then chairman of wilderness and work with animals. But what ‘‘Alaska—where men are men and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. sort of a career was that? So I started with women win the Iditarod.’’ Susan left Susan had a gift for inspiring others veterinary medicine, which I also loved. I moved to Colorado where I went on with fur- behind her husband David Monson and to never give up, to test their limits, to see their way through to the finish ther schooling, and to enhance my career. By daughters Tekla and Chisana, and then, my mushing was becoming more than friends and admirers everywhere. line, and to always try the path less traveled. It is no wonder her favorite just a hobby. I had eight dogs and was start- In the solitude of the unforgiving ing to run in smaller races. Arctic terrain, this tough, focused, in- poem reflected her New England In those days though, the Iditarod race roots—Robert Frost’s ‘‘The Road Not telligent woman traveled and ran many didn’t even exist. There was no such thing as Taken.’’ thousands of miles with her dog teams a professional musher. And yet my dream On a winter day in 1994, near her still was to go and live in the wilderness over the years—a distance greater than home in Eureka, AK, the reporter Skip with my dogs. Shortly after I turned 20, the a trip around the world. In David’s Hollandsworth watched Susan and her Iditarod was run for the first time, and I said words, she was the most driven woman dogs: ‘‘She whispers a command, and in ‘‘that’s for me.’’ I packed up my dogs, my on the face of this earth. unison the dogs pull forward. The sled cats, and my Volkswagen Bug, and I drove up Susan’s skill as a musher was slips across the snow. Soon, Butcher to Alaska—all my belongings and against all parental advice, but not without their bless- matched only by her great and abiding and her dogs are like a mirage in the love for her dogs. If her dogs were ings—I lived way out in bush Alaska, teach- distance. A few moments later, the ing myself the art of dog mushing. Still at happy, Susan was happy. cold, silent land swallows them up.’’ Whether on the trail or at home, that time I had no clue that I was going to ‘‘Sometimes when she leaves,’’ David be able to make this passion into a career Susan always took care of her huskies says, ‘‘I wonder if she ever wants to re- and a livelihood. In the summers I supported before tending to her own needs. With turn home.’’ myself working on a musk ox farm and only her ax and a parka, she once fend- Some day in the years ahead, Susan through fishing for salmon. ed off a moose attacking her team and David’s beautiful daughters Tekla I can only say that when I reached Alaska along the trail. The moose killed two and was working out there, I knew this was and Chisana will graduate from high perfect for me. I was content in my soul. I dogs and stomped 13 others. In another school. We hope they and their friends harrowing experience, she was rescued knew that I had found my dream. The rela- will find the same inspiration to chal- tionship that I was able to develop with my by her dogs when her sled broke lenge themselves as Susan’s words in- dogs was deeper and stronger than anything through the ice on a remote river in stilled in our daughter Lily’s Holton that I could have possibly imagined. Perhaps the Wrangell Mountains. After that es- Arms class in 1999. I can describe that to you a little bit in this cape, Susan said she looked at every Mr. President, Alaska lost one of its story. I worked very hard to try and develop moment of her life as a gift. Susan did brightest stars when Susan Butcher a trust with each one of my dogs individ- it all—living a life without many re- passed away. We will always remember ually. And a number of years ago, when I was grets and always great humor. this remarkable and courageous with my dog team in the Wrangell Moun- Susan was blessed with a wonderful tains and I traveling on a trail that I had woman. been using all year long that crossed a frozen partner when she married fellow I ask unanimous consent that Ms. river, my lead dog at the time kept veering musher and lawyer David Monson. He Butcher’s commencement address to off to the right. I kept calling her back to gave her the love, laughter and relent- the Holton Arms School be printed in the left, telling her ‘‘haw’’—that’s the com- less support that carried her through the RECORD.
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