As a former U.S. Senate page, I can’t believe some congressmen are calling for an end to the page program. Isn’t it obvious that the problem is with elected officials who can’t control their own prurient interests, and not with the program itself?
The page program takes high school juniors from around the country and across all socioeconomic lines and gives them the experience of a lifetime: to work in the Capitol with the people who shape our country; to go to school in the Library of Congress; and to live in Washington with fellow pages who, my experience has shown, remain confidants and friends for life.
My fellow pages of the 103rd Congress are in constant communication some 13 years later, and we all hope our children will someday be interested in serving as pages.
I believe I speak on behalf of all former pages when I say that the program should never be abolished. Ending this great and historic program would merely be a political safeguard for elected officials who lack self-control over their own inappropriate and embarrassing behavior.
