Kansas Senator Pat Roberts delivered his final speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Thursday, wrapping up a 40-year career in public service.
Roberts said he has had the honor and privilege of representing Kansans for 16 years in the U.S. House and 24 years in the Senate, and he called on his colleagues to decide the Senate’s “new normal.” He said although things in the country are rocky, these are not the worst of times. He said the U.S. is in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and even that has fallen into politics, but it doesn’t have to be. He said he laments the “loss of comity, the ability to work together or just to get along.”
Roberts said, “Here, in the Senate, only we can decide what our new normal is, and we ought to get to know one another. We don’t have to let the apparent gravitational pull of more and more politics in pursuit of power to change what our founders gave us – the creation of a nation of liberty and freedom, the envy of the world – and to literally move the United States Senate from the moorings of its historic and great past to simply be a rubber stamp for radical change.
“Let us once again become a body of respect, humility, cooperation, achievement and friendship. That can and should be our new normal.
“The entire country could use a little bit of what we say in Kansas, ‘Ad astra per aspera’ – to the stars through difficulties.”
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The state’s other U.S. Senator, Jerry Moran, paid tribute to Roberts in comments on the Senate floor:
“Pat’s role model – the person he may admire the most – is Kansan Dwight Eisenhower. Pat Roberts, I have no doubt that you’ve lived up to that role model, that Kansan that is esteemed around the world, and you’ve led like Ike led. I thank you and your staff for all you have done for Kansans and America. I thank you for what you’ve done for me and my team.”
“You said thank you to Kansans; you said thank you to this Senate. I think it’s the time for me to say in return, on behalf of all Kansans, thank you for your service to our nation and to our state. A life being well lived, you are the example.”
[ photo from U.S. Senate video ]
