Jerry Moran, U.S. Senator, Kansas
Landon Lecture
Sept. 11, 2018
Answering the Call: Serving a Global Society Post 9/11
Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Just like a townhall meeting with only a few more people, right?
Good morning. It’s such an honor for me to be with you here today and I thank President Myers and Dr. Flinchbaugh for the introduction, and the invitation. And to Linda Cook, the Chief of Staff, who made all this come together today. And I heard these folks introduced by the President, but I want to issue my special welcome to our Lieutenant Governor Tracy Mann who was our very first intern in our congressional office in 1997. And to Senator Kassebaum – thank you, hello Nancy, I was going to tell you from this podium that I worked on your campaign in 1978, but I decided that everybody I ever knew told me they did once I won – but I’m telling you the truth. Senator Kassebaum, I recognize as I travel Kansas that the glory days of the United States Senate from the Kansas perspective, is people long for the days of Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum representing them in the United States Senate, and we appreciate the way you did so . . . we appreciate the way you did so with such intelligence and such integrity.
We gather here on this September 11th, the 17th anniversary of the attacks named for this day. We reflect on the events that transpired, the lives that were affected, and we recommit ourselves to “Never Forget.” This is not only a reminder of the attacks on our country, but also a reminder about of how the country and each of us have changed since those events of September 11, 2001.
I will never forget.
Most Americans remember where they were and what they were doing when they watched the attacks on our nation unfold. On that day, and in the months that followed, Americans bound themselves together, they lifted each other up, they prayed for healing, they prayed for recovery and the resolve to find a way forward, through the enormity of our losses and through a recognition that the United States of America was under attack.
We can’t gather on this campus, focus on 9/11, and not recognize the contribution of now President – then General – Richard Myers. He’s a distinguished leader of our military and with a career full of accomplishments, General Myers served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during these turbulent and uncertain times. And he was the principal military and defense advisor to President George W. Bush, and he gave counsel on almost every major decision concerning our military and the defense of our nation, now post-9/11. General Myers’ leadership to our nation and world – and now to his alma mater – is something we are all so very grateful for.
Thank you, General.
Now, I’ve attended a number of Landon Lectures over the years. I was trying to remember the ones that I thought were really good so that I could use that as a role model – I couldn’t remember them, which is a problem perhaps for today. But this is a high-quality, respected Lecture series named in honor of former Kansas Governor Alf Landon, who first delivered a Landon Lecture – the very first one – and he would have turned 131 years two days ago, on Sunday. Displayed in my office in Washington, D.C. is a photograph of President Ronald Reagan and Governor Alf Landon sitting side by side in rocking-chairs on the Governor’s front porch in Topeka, Kansas, and President Reagan was there to celebrate with Governor Landon, Governor Landon’s 100th birthday. I titled that photo in my mind, “two old codgers.” Five years prior to that President Reagan delivered his own Landon Lecture.
President Reagan that day described Governor Landon like this:
“No one is more the living soul of Kansas, which to me means quiet strength and the simple decency of all America, than Alf Landon.”
From Governor Landon and President Reagan, to other presidents, governors, Supreme Court justices, entrepreneurs, cabinet secretaries and diplomats, this lecture series is one I am not worthy to be part of but so honored to do so.
Other than being an American, there is little in my life that would suggest I would ever grow up to become a member of the United States Senate. My dad was a laborer in the oil fields of western Kansas, my mom was the clerk you paid your light bill to in our little town, and I am a first-generation college graduate.
And I want to acknowledge the many people – my parents, my teachers, other supporters all along the way – who saw something in this kid from Plainville, Kansas and encouraged him to chase after his dreams. Because of them, I was able to answer a calling to work in our nation’s capital on behalf of all of you. We work on behalf of all of you in pursuit of a better America.
September 11, 2001, I was in Washington and the day began just like any other Tuesday. I just finished my regular morning workout when, with my colleague from New York, then-Representative Chuck Schumer, we first heard reports of a plane crashing into a high-rise building in New York City. Chuck and I stood there side-by-side in the gym, we turned on the television in time to witness the second plane crash into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
We quickly concluded: “This is no accident.”
Chuck’s thoughts turned to his daughter who worked in lower Manhattan in New York City, near the Twin Towers, and mine, to our daughters, Kelsey and Alex, who were at school in our hometown of Hays. This was prior to the social media and the breaking news alerts, so that at this point, all we were certain of was that airplanes had crashed into the World Trade Center and that our nation was under attack. We didn’t know if the attack was over, if there were other hijacked planes, and, if so, where they might be heading. Schumer and I quickly parted ways and we returned to our respective offices to try and learn more about what had happened and what might happen.
Seventeen years later, and now in the Senate, Chuck Schumer and I still remember that moment: a moment in which we were not a republican from Kansas and a democrat from New York, but we were just two dads – in a moment where party lines and political posturing ceased. We were worried about our children and concerned for our nation.
Minutes after I returned to my office, my staff and I felt a thud of the plane crashing into the Pentagon – you could feel it in our office. And out the window you could see smoke rising from those miles away. We still didn’t know what was happening, but we had been told there was a credible threat of another hijacked plane – this one heading for the United States Capitol. Capitol Police dashed from door to door to evacuate the complex. And while I sent my staff home, our office telephones began to ring.
In chaos and uncertainty, it’s often difficult to know what to do or how to help. I, like Americans across the country, were watching these attacks unfold live on live television, and we felt devastated, we felt saddened and we felt angered. But what little could I do to help in that moment? I did what I thought I could do – I ignored that order to evacuate, I remained in my office and I began answering those calls.
In 2001, I was serving my third term in Congress as a representative from the Big First District of Kansas. And while I appreciated the opportunity to represent Kansans in Congress, traveling back and forth from my home to Washington, D.C. each week and being away from my family – it was tough – I wanted to end that weekly commute to be in Kansas full-time, and I publically considered serving Kansans in a different capacity here at home.
But on September 11th, America was under attack. This was the first day that most Americans contemplated terrorism in the homeland. We knew our world had dramatically changed. I knew that we’d soon be voting on whether or not to send troops in harm’s way; to fight an enemy we had yet to define or to clearly understand.
When I voted to authorize the President to use all necessary force to combat a new enemy – a decision that can only be made by Congress of the United States in Washington, D.C. – I decided I no longer could pursue election to any other office. Instead of campaigning across the state for another position, I determined I should continue serving in our nation’s capital, and concluded my work there was not done.
This day 17 years ago changed me – the way I viewed public service and advocated for Kansans and for our nation. It broadened my prospective and deepened my resolve. In a new way, I had a duty not only to preserve the Kansas way of life that I cared so much about . . . it really was the motivating factor that caused me to ask Kansans to allow me to represent them in the nation’s capital: How do we keep rural America alive? I cared very much about that Kansas way of life but now I knew I had a duty beyond that to preserve and protect the American way of life.
A few days following the attacks, I gave remarks at a chamber monthly “Eggs and Issues” Breakfast in Hays, the venue where I had intended to announce those other plans. Instead, I visited with Kansans about the week’s events and how we all wanted to do something – to bring justice to those who attacked us, to defend our country and to provide support for the victims.
I announced to that audience that my time in Washington, D.C. – up to Kansans, of course – but in my mind, couldn’t come to an end. The course we were on was not an easy one. As I told them then, that day: this was not a task for the day, not for the week, not for the year, this was now a task for a generation. This was our time to answer the call to make a difference. There was more I could accomplish – at least in my mind – more I could accomplish in Congress on behalf of Kansans and Americans, and I wanted to do so.
Kansans returned to work and they profoundly demonstrated that they would not be held hostage by fear, and I, too, returned to work with a new fire, a new passion, a new sense of purpose – determined to tackle every problem I could, to seize every moment of every day to fight not only for those who were sent in harm’s way, but also for our farmers, our ranchers, our teachers, our veterans, our way of life. And to that end, I’ve had a tremendous opportunity – and I’ve had a tremendous responsibility – to work on important issues as now both a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and United States Senate in the most powerful country in the world.
Today, I am going to speak about how 9/11 changed me as a legislator and the issues I have been called on to help solve in order to make a difference in Kansas and our country. But I also want to discuss how we should “never forget,” how we came together as a country to help one another after that horrific day.
Front and center as I indicated in my work is to protect the Kansas way of life in addressing the challenges of rural America, agriculture, farming and ranching. Some of the hardest-working people we know – they work on Kansas farms and ranches. And it’s their passion and resiliency that drive me to advocate for them in Washington, D.C. so that they may continue to plant, grow, harvest and market wheat and sorghum and corn, and raise and sell cattle.
Agriculture plays such an important role in the future of Kansas. Only when farmers and ranchers thrive can rural communities succeed.
In Congress, we often refer to the “majority” and the “minority,” and we use those party labels to divide ourselves into democrats and republicans. As a republican, I am a member of the current majority in the United States Senate. But because I represent you, I represent Kansas, I represent agriculture here in the middle of the country – I am a minority on many issues.
Most of my colleagues in Washington have very little understanding of the challenge that farmers and ranchers face trying to earn that living.
Back when I was a member of the House of Representatives during a democrat-majority, a Democrat Congresswoman from New Haven, Connecticut – the home of Yale University and the suburbs of New York City that spill over into the state of Connecticut – she became the chairperson of the Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee, a job I’ve now held in the United States Senate. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro approached me on the House floor – we’d never met before – and she said, “Congressman Moran, I understand that you know and care about agriculture; would you please come visit with me and tell me what I now need to know, what’s important?”
A few days later in her office, I began discussing with her the importance of the Farm Bill, crop insurance, agriculture research . . . and just a few minutes into the conversation, Rosa is very animated, so she goes, “Oh, no, no, no. No, Jerry, that’s not what I want to know. Just tell me: what does a farmer do?”
My point in telling this story is not to embarrass her or to criticize – I’m pleased that she cared enough to ask the question. Rather, this story demonstrates the minority that I often find myself in. Incidentally, I invited Rosa DeLauro to come to Kansas. She and I had different ideas about how to do it. My suggestion was “let’s meet on a farmstead along Highway 27.” Only a few of you will know where that is, but that’s what runs from St. Francis to Elkhart. I thought that would be an eye-opening experience for Rosa. She had a different idea, her question was, “Well, could we just meet at an airport?”
I was pleased she accepted the invitation.
We began in Little River – population about 500 – it’s a town in Rice County where we had cheeseburgers and coconut cream pie at Cheryl’s Café. And I was pleased to see she wasn’t a vegetarian.
After our lunch, we toured the Hodgson Family Farm south of town and I visited, and we visited, with Kendall Hodgson’s neighboring farmers. I also took her to a small-town hospital in Lyons, it’s a critical access hospital – something she’d never seen. I wanted her to see what delivery of healthcare was like in places all across Kansas. Then, the next day, we concluded her visit to the state of Kansas. We went to Hutchinson, where she had the opportunity to tour the Kansas State Fair with 4-H kids from across the state and she learned about their projects and she learned about their lives. These kids were the perfect ambassadors for rural America.
Almost every day, I visit with someone from the Ag community – many of them are in this room. It can be the Kansas Farm Bureau, the Kansas Livestock Association, the Corn Growers, Kansas Wheat, there’s a host of other trade and commodity groups that come knocking on my door or that I see when I am home in Kansas. But, more importantly than talking among ourselves, we need to be telling the story, our story, to those who don’t know what a farmer does. We need to find the Rosa DeLauros who are in positions to make a difference and we need to bring more folks under our agricultural tent so we can have a widespread, shared understanding of the importance of this industry.
And while the value of agriculture to our state’s economy cannot be overstated, there’s another reason I go to bat every day for farmers and ranchers: farming is one of the few places left in our society where children still grow up side by side with moms and dads and their grandparents – and in that process of learning how to farm and being on the farm with your parents and grandparents, we pass on to the next generation our character and our values and get an understanding of the real meaning of life. This country was based upon on that and it’s disappearing. We need to do everything we can to protect that relationship, that being together with mom and dad, and grandma and grandpa.
The character and values that were evident, those characters and values that were taught to our kids, were evident when fires tore through Clark county Kansas and the surrounding areas just a year ago. I made it to Ashland on the Sunday following the fire – just a couple days later –and I went to the church, the United Methodist Church of Ashland. And I was there, attended those services with many who only the day before had lost their homes, their ranches, their cattle. Even with their homes and barns burnt to the ground, their grass and cattle gone, the theme of that community of believers clearly showed to me was this: “It’s OK, they’re just things.” Despite all those losses, they gathered to worship God and give Him thanks for what they saw as their many blessings.
In the months that followed I spoke to many of those ranchers regarding the difficulties they faced to try and recover and rebuild. I introduced legislation to provide them with greater financial assistance. The legislation was crafted carefully based upon the feedback from those ranchers and others in neighboring counties, and it was designed to get resources to those folks who needed it the most, the quickest. I am pleased that earlier this year Congress passed and the President signed pieces of that legislation into law; and it was what I saw and heard from the people of Ashland that motivated me, drove me to pursue help for their cause. Unfortunately, those funds are beginning to make their way to our farmers and ranchers for rebuilding efforts at a time they are now faced with yet another uphill battle outside of their control.
The United States has engaged itself in a trade war that I am not convinced anyone can win.
Agriculture is a worthy calling; its noble, and it’s especially rewarding when the food that farmers and ranchers produce get to people who really need it. Farmers must have access to global markets, especially in Kansas. We’re a state that has such a long-standing history of exporting commodities all over the world. In our state trade matters, it’s how we earn a living.
Kansans are now feeling the effects of the recently imposed tariffs. Approximately 361 million dollars of Kansas exports are being targeted in an ongoing trade war including soy beans and grain sorghum exports to China, aerospace parts to Canada, beef and corn exports to Mexico. With 95 percent of the consumers living outside of our country’s border, the ability for Ag producers to directly earn a living is tied to their ability to sell food, fuel and fiber as they produce for that, for consumers around the globe.
Last year, Veterans’ Day, I was invited to speak at Kensington, Kansas for their veterans’ ceremony. While I was there, I drove past this huge pile of grain piled on the ground waiting to be sold, and I pulled over and took a photo. I’ve kept that photo with me as a reminder of the reality of what farmers face. This summer, I handed that photograph to President Trump during a White House meeting to show how access to markets is needed to sell commodities and feed the world. I’ve also shared this photo in meetings with Secretary of Commerce, Secretary Ross; the Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary Perdue; and more recently, the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer. Every time, of course, the reaction is, “Well, we need to fix this.” Well, first and foremost, we need to have a solid path forward with an end in sight on these trade negotiations with China.
We cannot escalate a fight between a significant purchaser of what we produce with no real end goal. To date, all we see is United States imposes tariffs, China responds; United States imposes more tariffs, China again responds. Tough enforcement of trade agreements and trade rules is important, especially when it comes to dealing with China; but an everlasting trade war, tariff battle, is not.
I also believe the responsible way forward is to work with our global partners rather than to isolate ourselves. We ought to be continuing to work to improve preexisting trade deals, including the North America Free Trade Agreement and we ought to be reengaging in others, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canada and Mexico were Kansas’s number one and two export markets in 2017. Sometimes people just brush off the idea that Canada will not be included in an agreement. It’s our number one purchaser of products and commodities from Kansas. We sell more aerospace parts and products to Canada than anywhere in the world, and more food and commodities to Mexico than anywhere in the world.
Recently, Mexican officials told me, and I understand they’re probably trying to bias my thought, but they told me that Mexico has already found suppliers for more than 80 percent of the commodities they typically buy from Americans. Plain and simple, Canada and Mexican markets are vital to our state and both countries need to be a part of the final NAFTA Agreement.
Today’s ongoing trade dispute doesn’t just effect agriculture, but also manufacturing and other industries important to our state. Recently, I was at Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita – an aircraft manufacturer and one of our state’s largest employers. We were celebrating the 10,000th Wichita-built Boeing 737 fuselage. After 50 years of production to this aircraft, it marked a tremendous milestone for the company and the numerous small businesses in Kansas that comprise the local supply base. Spirit had also just announced an additional hiring of 1,000 more individuals to work in Kansas, signaling its confidence in the future growth of aviation and the aerospace industry in our state. But now there is a 10 percent tariff on aluminum products and the 737 fuselage is made entirely of aluminum.
These tariffs may jeopardize what should have been a great success story for the Wichita economy, for the state of Kansas, and even for the President himself. It is one more example of the harm this trade war is causing and we must not stop working until our trade policy is right for those who own a business and those who earn wages in our state.
It was over 100 years ago that an aviation pioneer named Clyde Cessna wandered into Kansas. He had a dream about building airplanes. And it’s a testament to our strength, the state’s strength and the talents of Kansans that a century later this industry remains so successful and that Wichita is known as the Air Capital of the World. We must be certain to continue. We need to inspire, educate and train the next generation of aerospace workers and continue to develop opportunities that allow them to work in Kansas to build the next-generation aircraft.
In Congress, I’m actively working to close the skill gaps that exist in engineering and other high-skilled aviation jobs, and I’ve introduced, cosponsored and fought for the advancement of legislation to incentivize young people – especially young women – to pursue technical careers and bring them to our state and help contribute and grow this vital industry. Kansas institutions of higher education play a major role. K-State is an active participant in achieving this goal.
Three years ago, the Federal Aviation Administration selected a team of universities to serve as its center for excellence for research, education and training in unmanned aircraft systems. These systems have the potential to unlock extraordinary economic benefits to our country. Everything from precision agriculture, emergency response, uses for law enforcement and our national defense. And K-State, here in particular, is making a major contribution to this Center of Excellence because the talents and expertise of staff and leaders like Dr. Verna Fitzsimmons and Dr. Kurt Barnhart and many others. Last year, I got to enjoy my attempt to fly my first drone at K-State Polytechnic. It landed safely.
Another important development is the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility where we welcomed Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue earlier this year in May, and just yesterday, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary Nielsen. I am proud to have worked alongside many people in this room and across the state who’ve worked so hard to bring NBAF to Kansas and to Manhattan, Kansas.
NBAF will become a world-class, state-of-the-art, research facility right here adjacent to our campus. Hundreds of PhDs and advanced-degree researchers will find work here in what former senate majority leader Tom Daschle called, “the Silicon Valley of bio-defense.” And it will help secure the world’s food supply and fight against threats to agriculture and livestock around the globe. This laboratory is representing a changing tide in Kansas and K-State should be proud of this facility and the successful work it took to get it here, and I am excited to see opportunities that it will provide for students and aspiring scientists. One of my goals is to make sure Kansas, while never walking away from agriculture or aviation, to make sure those students who like science and mathematics, engineering and research have a path for an education here, but equally or more importantly, have an opportunity for a job here.
If we plan correctly, the amount of animal science and bio-research that happens here in Manhattan will increase tenfold and we will secure the presence of an entire industry for this region. If we come together and capture this opportunity, this community and this university will become the hub for groundbreaking agriculture research and the home to the scientists who perform it. I am the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees, for example, the National Science Foundation and my subcommittee supports universities and their efforts to increase the number of minority students interested in STEM workforce. I am excited to announce that we were able to secure a 3 million dollar grant, just this week, for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Program here at Kansas State.
From drones to NBAF and everything in between, industry and research needs young people and young people need opportunities. I hope to convey to the students in this room, to the next generation of engineers and mathematicians, pilots and astronauts and scientists: Kansas needs you and wants you. Kansas will always be that Ag state, it will always be that aviation state, but I am driven to foster more opportunities in the fields of STEM. We want to build long-lasting careers here at home.
For any of these good things to happen, our citizens must be civically engaged.
Kansans will always be in need of public servants and I am proud of the many people I know who’ve chosen to serve the public good – I mentioned two of them earlier this morning. In Congress, I make a special effort to hire Kansans. I know that they work, the work that they do, and the work that they’ve done in my office since I was first elected to Congress, has been performed with the knowledge that the policies we pursue and the work we do have direct and lasting impacts on their friends, their neighbors, their families – the people here at home. Many of those people who work for you in our office in Washington, D.C. and our offices here in Kansas are with us today. Some of them were even by my side when we felt the earth shake together on 9/11. To those who’ve been by my side advocating for Kansans throughout my time in public service, thank you. Not a thing, not one thing, would’ve happened good without you.
That must’ve been an applause line because my script says, “long pause.” So thank you.
A few days after September the 11th – those attacks – I was part of the first congressional delegation to visit ground zero in New York City. I was walking through that area of the Twin Towers, where they once stood. And, there, New Yorkers had created memorials to those who died at Ground Zero. Those memorials were created there in the dust and rubble, and they were places where loved ones could come and pay their respects.
I passed framed photos of the fallen. Teddy bears and other stuffed animals laid there – flowers, as you would expect, at that site. But a specific note, torn from a spiral notebook with that jagged edge, caught my eye. I picked it up and I read this: “Dear Daddy, how much I miss you. How I hope heaven is a wonderful place. And I hope I live a life good enough to join you in heaven someday. – Amanda, age 12.”
At that moment, reading that note, I again realized my commitment to the people who elected me and my own call, my own sense of what my call was, involved a much larger, more complicated purpose. Public service now included the goals of making certain that there were no more Amandas – those who would lose their fathers at the hands of those who wanted to kill Americans and destroy our way of life. I realized that I must be more engaged in global affairs and I must think more broadly when legislating – that my obligations reached beyond just the first district of Kansas. I realized that in order to be a good public servant and to fully fulfill my constitutional responsibilities as a member of Congress, I needed to pay closer attention to America’s position as leader of the free world. I realized I had a role, at least some role, in making the world a better and safer place.
One of those ways – besides a moral belief that we ought to do our part for those in need around the globe – I know that international assistance helps assure peace in our own country by promoting political, economic and social stability in the world.
We can act morally and achieve greater stability by way of healthy, affordable and accessible food. Food shortages act as a catalyst for upheaval and conflict around the globe and we’ve witnessed regions of the world as they descend into chaos due to lack of access to food, due to hunger. In assisting those who need it, we reduce the likelihood of another terrorist attack on our nation. It’s a double-benefit. We help people in need, we protect ourselves.
Access to food provides hope and it provides economic opportunity; and when parents can provide food for their children, they can provide a better future for their children. And if we can help equip people with the tools they need for a better life, maybe they won’t look to Al Qaeda or ISIS or other global terror organizations to find their purpose. The call to feed the hungry has been answered by so many Kansans before me and I am proud to support Dole-McGovern Food for Education Program which provides meals for school children in food insecure places around the world. Dole-McGovern, as well as Food for Peace – which was signed into law by another Kansan, President Dwight D. Eisenhower – is an example of the United States using its leadership role in the world for good and moral reasons. I called Senator Dole last month. August was his 95th birthday. I wished him a happy birthday and had the opportunity to thank him once again for his efforts related to hunger, but also for helping to inspire me, to inspire my interest in this topic. And I now serve as the co-chair of the Senate Hunger Caucus. Senator Dole remains passionate as ever, and we’ve often discussed trying to continue the work he started to eliminate hunger worldwide.
Sadly, the world is facing one of the greatest humanitarian crises of modern history. Estimates indicate that 800 million people worldwide – one in every nine – will go to bed each night chronically hungry. In Congress, we fight for international food aid programs and the agricultural research and development initiatives that reduce hunger and promote stability worldwide. I am dedicated to carrying out the legacy of Senator Dole – the one that he built as a champion for those efforts to end global hunger. As Bob Dole has said, “Feeding those in need represents the very heart and soul of our country.”
K-State is a leader in research to improve crop production and prevent post-harvest losses in key grain-producing areas in the world and it’s critical to our effort in ending global hunger. K-State received over 100 million dollars from USAID to establish Feed the Future innovation labs focused on agriculture production in developing countries.
Additionally, we can’t ignore those who are hungry here at home. Living in Kansas, as we do, we’re the breadbasket of our nation and it can be difficult to comprehend that our neighbors often go to bed hungry, and it’s true especially in rural communities across our state. According to Feeding America, in 2016, that was the first year on record that a greater percentage of people living in rural places were more hungry than people living in urban areas – a startling trend that is expected to continue. The lack of a grocery store in many rural places across the country limits the access to healthy and nutritious foods and contributes to people’s hunger.
I’ll always remember 2007. . . I visited Greensburg the morning after the deadly E-5 tornado. It tore that community apart and it demolished the local grocery store. When I arrived in town that morning, it was unrecognizable; I happened to represent Kiowa County, Greensburg, as a state senator – I knew this community. You couldn’t find a single landmark. Despite that devastation, I once again saw the compassionate nature of our state’s residents. Neighbors, friends and family – and Kansans who knew nobody in Greensburg – they all rallied to respond and to help.
Many without homes were temporarily staying in Haviland, the next town to the east –Greensburg’s rival – but they took those people in. I drove over to Haviland. I remember the long line at the Haviland grocery store. It was one of those old grocery stores with the tin ceiling and the fan. I am quite certain it wasn’t making a profit, or least much of one.
Behind the counter stood the cashier – I assumed he was owner, actually – and he took the time to make a conversation with every customer who presented groceries at the counter, and in a casual way he just would ask, “So, where are you from?” If the answer was, “Greensburg,” his response was: “No charge.”
It is a story worth knowing. Compassion defines our character as Kansans. But this story isn’t just about “Kansas Kindness.” It’s also about the importance of grocery stores and highlights a larger challenge we face and the role that those grocery stores play in small communities and in the urban core of our state’s cities. For as long as I’ve been in Congress, I’ve been telling people in Washington, D.C., “Now, where I come from, economic development can be whether or not there is a grocery store in town.” And almost no one I speak to has any understanding of what I am saying.
In the case of Greensburg, the residents wanted to be certain, and they would call and they would ask – it was a common question that we encountered – they wanted to know, “Is the grocery store going to rebuild?” And there view was, “If the grocery store doesn’t rebuild, we’re probably moving away.” But, not surprisingly, a Hutchinson native and then-Kroger CEO David Dillion – who managed one of our country’s largest chain stores of groceries –he took care of Kansans. He was lobbied to do so, incidentally, but he did it! Dillon’s was the store that was there before. It was gone. But he worked across his company to develop a new, innovative convenience store that was right-sized for the grocery needs of Greensburg. And that store is a part of the mainstay of the Greensburg community today.
In this spirit, I introduced bipartisan legislation this Congress that would incentivize food providers to open grocery stores, food banks and farmers markets in food deserts – areas where people lack access to healthy, affordable food. These efforts could help fill critical needs that affect small communities and urban centers across our state and country.
Now, despite the amount of time I’ve spent working in Washington, D.C. – truth is, small-town Kansas really does feel like the center of the universe to me. I feel at home, more comfortable and most centered when I’m in Kansas. Wherever your hometown is, I’m pretty certain I’ve been there, and I’ve probably found myself thinking, “I could live here.”
Seventeen years ago today, with the Twin Towers in rubble, the Pentagon smoldering and a plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field, Americans responded. Sons and daughters chose to serve – they volunteered to wear a battle uniform; they chose to answer a higher calling. And every one of those soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines valued American freedoms above their own lives. It was a time that called us to service, including military service. Many who volunteered, they did so knowing that they’d likely see combat. And many did deploy – to Afghanistan, and Iraq, to Syria, and elsewhere. And some didn’t return.
Thank you to those here who served our country. We honor the sacrifice that so many continue to make to protect our homeland and our way of life.
Our neighbor, General, Fort Riley, has been pivotal in our strategic defense efforts, deploying First Infantry Division troops all over the world to protect our freedoms. And I am proud to work alongside Fort Riley leaders to make certain that Fort Riley remains the best place to live, train, deploy from and come home to.
My leadership in the defense arena has taken me many places around the globe to see our defense efforts firsthand and to visit our deployed troops. In 2003, I made my first visit to our troops in Iraq and I evaluated the progress that was being made and the challenges that lied ahead. It was there, on a trip from Baghdad to Mosul with General Petraeus by my side, I reconnected with a Black Hawk helicopter a pilot, Army Lieutenant Katrina Grier Lewison. Lieutenant Lewison – a Hutchinson native and a Manhattan resident – had been injured in a grenade attack against her Humvee just a few weeks before. I knew this because she was emailing her mom and dad at home in Hutchinson and they were sending those emails to a reporter at the Hutchinson News, so I had been keeping up with Katrina and I explained this to General Petraeus. When we landed in Mosul, an Army aide tapped me on the shoulder, General Petraeus called his troops to attention, and I pinned a Purple Heart that day in Mosul, Iraq on Lieutenant Lewison.
Previously, I had the honor – and now as I think about pinning a Purple Heart to her – the responsibility of helping her secure her nomination to West Point. Another reminder of how challenging times are and the effects of decisions that we make.
Last year, I headed to another warzone, Afghanistan. It was for the fourth time to visit, where the Secretary of the Army and I expressed gratitude to our service members and received countless briefings from our military leaders on our strategy in the region. And again: What’s going to happen next? Where are we? When will this come to an end?
The consequences of 9/11 continue today in Afghanistan. A strong national defense is our federal government’s primary constitutional responsibility. Our nation faces a vast landscape of threats – there’s a resurgent Russia, the military build-up by China, an unpredictable North Korea, a nuclear Iran, a rise of ISIS and cyber-attacks coming from every corner of the world. It is vital that we maintain a strong and ready force to meet these global challenges.
On Independence Day just a month or so ago, while Americans were celebrating in the United States, Robba and I found ourselves in a much colder, more hostile environment just blocks from Red Square in Moscow, Russia. In Moscow, I delivered the message to Russian officials that interference in U.S. elections will not be tolerated and any thawing of relations between our two countries can only take place if this and other behaviors change.
Never before had I spent the Fourth of July – Independence Day – away from Kansas, away from parades and barbecues, family and friends.
Wherever I went in Russia, I can assure you, my thought was, “I could not live here.”
The Soviet Union was the center, the central nervous system, of an ideology that sought to overthrow capitalism and to limit freedom – the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. The threat of nuclear war was with me throughout my life, particularly as a grade school and elementary school student, but it was a threat that we all thought, and it was, very real. And here I was, on the first United States congressional visit to Russia in over five years, in the Ambassador’s residence in Moscow – surrounded by U.S. diplomats, our ambassador, his family, civil servants and embassy staff, Americans who happened to be in Russia on Independence Day – but most importantly the Marine Corps, those who protected our embassy. The Marine Corps band played our National Anthem in the Ambassador’s residence in Moscow, Russia. I can’t sing the National Anthem without choking up anyway, but it was an inspiring moment for Robba and me. And I was inspired to think about the history that I have lived, and that we continue to experience, where our nation’s sense of purpose and how over decades our determined moral, military and diplomatic efforts have changed the world and brought freedom to millions. Russia is Russia, Russia is not the Soviet Union, due to those efforts.
Over the course of time, I’ve both witnessed and participated in great cultural and political shifts in our nation, including those that followed 9/11. As American filmmaker Ken Burns said and the Army Chief of Staff General Milley often echoes, “It is the greatest arrogance of the present to forget the intelligence of the past.”
When I’m in Washington and feeling concerned or a bit discouraged, I’ll put my running shoes on and I’ll walk up the National Mall. I see the World War II Memorial now, I keep going and I go by the Vietnam Wall and on my way back I come by the Korean War Memorial. Those memorials remind me that no serviceman or woman served our country because they were republicans or because they were democrats. They served our nation because of a much more – much more – important calling. They believed that their service would help protect their families at home, make their country more secure and the world a more stable place.
I think back to my time as a high school student in the ‘70s. I had friends who were called to serve in Vietnam, they just happened to be a year or two older than me. That was the difference. A year or two . . . when you were born. I was embarrassed by the treatment those returning soldiers faced when they came home, and I have remained determined to make certain no veteran is ever again treated in a disrespectful way.
On one of these walks up the National Mall, I stopped at the Kansas column at the World War II Memorial and I thought of my dad, back home in Plainville. I stepped away from the monument, I had my cell phone with me, and I called my dad back home in Plainville.
Fortunately, I got his voicemail, because what I said that day is difficult for sons or daughters to say to their parents. I said: “Dad, I’m at the World War II Memorial. It was built in your honor, and I want you to know that I thank you for your service, I want you to know that I respect you – and, dad, I want you to know I love you.”
During that walk back from the World War II Memorial to my office, my cell phone rang. It was my dad. I of course answered it, and he said, “Gerald . . . Gerald, you left me a message and I couldn’t understand it. Could you repeat it?”
I have felt called throughout my public service to make certain our nation’s heroes receive the care and benefits that they have earned – maybe because I never served. Far too often, our veterans have to fight tooth and nail to access their benefits, but it’s critical that our nation uphold its vow to serve them as they served us.
The world recently mourned the passing of my friend John McCain. He was an honorable man and exemplified what it is to be a great American. He used his bully-pulpit for good and allowed the injustices that he’d seen in his life to guide his work. I have been honored in this past year and a half to work closely, work side-by-side with Senator McCain on veterans’ issues, particularly the issue of Choice and veterans’ access to timely and quality healthcare, whether it be at the local VA or in a veteran’s community.
Senator McCain fought to improve veterans’ access to care for years, and it is because of his steadfast determination to fix the VA that we now have the Veterans’ Choice Program. And since 2014, that Choice program has helped thousands of veterans access care – especially veterans in rural communities who may not have had a VA hospital close by. While some veterans had success using the program, way too many times we heard from veterans who were still being denied quality care in a timely, convenient manner. After hearing “no” from the department that was tasked in helping them, these veterans would turn to my office and would ask for my assistance – our staff’s assistance – in helping get through that VA red tape and get them the services that they needed.
The legislative fixes and measures that Senator McCain and I developed stem from the experiences of veterans contacting my office with their frustrations with navigating the VA system, particularly in situations where the Choice Program ought to have been available to them.
While there’s hundreds of cases we have worked to resolve, I wanted to share the story of an Air Force veteran from Bonner Springs, a young man named Matt who received a 100 percent service-connected disabled rating due to his exposure to toxic substances during his time in the Air Force. That exposure led him to leukemia and kidney failure. After the VA decided they would send him to Iowa for treatment – even though he lived just a few minutes from where the care could have been in a quality way provided – we stepped in and got Matt’s request for care honored at the University of Kansas Center for Transplantation, where he could be closer to home and family and where he could receive the quality of care that he felt he needed. It was Matt’s story that we used time and time again as litmus test for substantial reforms to the VA.
I’m proud to say we fought hard to make certain that veterans’ legislation to reform the Choice program and transform the VA’s healthcare system now pass that test. Would it help Matt and would it help others like him?
The VA MISSION Act, named in honor of Senator McCain, was signed into law this June and will improve and modernize veterans’ healthcare services.
You know, my dad passed away a few years ago at age 98, at home in Plainville. So, I no longer can repeat what I said to him those years ago, but I can say it to today’s veterans – I can repeat it for them. Thank you for your service, I respect you, and I love you. I intend to continue advancing the work for making certain veterans are treated with the dignity and respect that they’ve earned, and that they receive the benefits they were promised.
Earlier, I spoke about remaining in my office and answering those Kansas telephone calls on September the 11th.
Now, let me tell you what those Kansans called to say.
They called to ask how they could support their fellow Americans, how they could help with recovery. What could they do? On that day, the most frightening day of our nation’s – that our nation has seen in a lifetime – Kansans chose to pick up the phone, call their congressman and offer their assistance, their thoughts and their prayers. I felt the care and compassion of Kansans in ways that I had not experienced before and it, too, forever changed me.
One of the most important calls I took that day was from my wife, Robba. Before widely used cell phones and texting and email messages, she had no way to reach me on that day, except by calling the office line – the main office line. And her concern for me on that day and her efforts to make sure it was she who told our daughters that their father was safe, rather than learn something from the television, is representative of the larger sacrifice that my family has made in order for me to continue to answer the call of many.
Through campaigns and my time in Washington, D.C., and all the other drama that comes with being a family and a wife of an elected official, my family, too, has answered the call.
They’ve sacrificed much throughout the years so that I could continue to serve. Our family was all here this weekend – they sacrificed, they never saw their dad, because he was too busy trying to figure out what to say today. I know they worried every time I got on an airplane to go back to Washington, D.C. in the months that followed the 9/11 attacks. Might that plane be one that would be next to crash? Or that the Capitol would be the next target?
Despite this, my family has supported me in our renewed commitment to serve Kansans in Congress. I am grateful for their love and support, built upon a belief that what we’re doing is right, that service makes a difference, and that sacrifices are made as part of a larger contribution to our state and our country.
Robba and I are both thankful that Kansans have granted us the opportunity to try to make a real difference.
It is these Kansans I turn to when the challenges of Washington, D.C. are so great. Throughout my time in Congress, I have made it a duty to make sure citizens know that their voices are listened to before my votes are cast. Sixty-nine townhall meetings every year as a congressman, 105 every two years as a senator. This was especially important to me during the healthcare debate, a topic that elicited strong and emotional response, pulled us apart as Republicans and Democrats. It was a mess along the political spectrum.
For one afternoon, Palco, Kansas – a small town in northwest Kansas of about 300 people – was the center for a national debate. I held my townhall meeting there for Rooks County, which brought in lots of people who weren’t from Palco, or who weren’t from Rooks County, many of them here from Manhattan, in fact. I held a townhall meeting which brought The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and even a Swedish television station, to witness this discussion. I happened to be the only Republican in the Senate who was having townhall meetings during the healthcare debate. Maybe others know something I didn’t know.
Based on those discussions, it was clear that this bill was not good for Kansans, and therefore it wasn’t good for me, and I returned to Washington D.C. and announced my opposition.
The initial healthcare replacement bill, called BCRA, was drafted behind closed doors and without committee hearings. Process matters, it’s important. Too many times today we want to shortcut the system by which decisions are made so that we can get the decision we want. But process matters. It’s an important part of what we do as legislators. And process allows the voice of every American to be considered, and that’s why it’s so important to hear from Kansans before making a decision.
I returned to Palco, incidentally, the following Friday. I was concerned that the locals would be annoyed at my bringing this mess to their town. It was a great experience; not a person complained. The answer was, “Jerry, it was great! The convenience store sold out of chicken-fried steaks.” I think more than me they were anxious to do that one again.
Healthcare wasn’t the first difficult decision, and I suppose it won’t be the last. We all should try to do what’s right and not necessarily what is easy.
I hope I demonstrated my commitment to this principle in 1999 as a member of the House of Representatives during President Clinton’s impeachment proceedings. I stood as a congressman on the House floor, never thinking that I’d be called, this kid from Plainville, would be called to determine the fate of another elected official. In this case, the President of the United States.
In a speech on the floor thereafter I stated this, and I quote: “I want my daughters to know . . . I want my daughters to know their dad chose the side of holding elected officials to high ethical standards. I’m an advocate for truth and a supporter of the rule of law, and someone who’s not influenced only by party politics or the political passions of the moment.” End quote.
In 2018, now, we find ourselves in another challenging and uncertain time, where Americans are once again divided and the President once again is under investigation. I stand on this stage and I want my daughters to again know that their dad will adhere to those same principles now.
Today, I’ve spoken about my experience on September 11th and how it changed and shaped me as a legislator. It altered my trajectory of my career and it prompted me to recommit myself to serving Kansans in the nation’s capital.
But in addition to, and perhaps more importantly than how that day impacted the congressman from Kansas, September 11th, 2001 refocused us as a nation on the things that pull us together, that bind us together, rather than those things that pull us apart. As I stood next to a New York City congressman from Brooklyn, we saw a nation under attack. While we disagree with each other more often than not, we stood there together and we saw each other as fathers, not foes. We saw each other as fellow Americans, not political enemies. That sentiment between us continues today.
The first vote Congress took following the 9/11 attacks was a bill to authorize the President to send troops overseas. It passed the House of Representatives 420 to 1. That’s a rare demonstration of Congressional unity. It was important to show the world, then and today, that Americans were united in our resolve to take the necessary steps to see nothing like 9/11 would happen again.
Just as we pulled together that day and in the days that followed, the memory of September 11, 2001 ought to have the very same impact today, September 11, 2018. It should be just as powerful, it ought to compel us to pull away from the division, the political posturing and the partisan shouting, and just get back to work, solving the big and important issues facing our nation today.
Back in the ‘60s, I remember asking my dad . . . this was when the Vietnam War was going on, race riots were in communities, cities across the country. . . I saw this every day, every night, on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite . . . I asked my dad, “Will our country survive?”
My dad’s answer was, “Yes, the country will be just fine.”
Every generation – well, even after 9/11 – I suppose we asked that same question, “Will our country survive?” And I suppose every generation it seems has that question before them at one point or another. And today, I assume that many are asking, “What’s going to happen to our country?” “Will it be okay?” “Will it survive?”
The answer is yes. The country will be fine. But the country will be fine only if we stop asking, “Who can I fight?” and instead ask, “How can I help?”
This goes for all of us. Not just me as an elected official or politician.
I remain convinced that with this approach – “How can we help?” – we can solve the most divisive issues of our time. It is our responsibility to do so. We owe it to our service members who served us at home and around the world. We owe it to those who lost their lives at the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon, and on that heroic Flight 93. We owe it to future generations that will one day inherit our country as their own.
May we never forget September 11, 2001. May we never forget the way we united in the aftermath of the attacks, as one nation under God. And may we renew our commitment respecting one another, to working together for the common good and answering the call to serve.
If we do so, that means we never forgot.
Thank you.
Remarks as given.