Heidi Alexander: “once after I made a speech my late friend Alex Haley, the author of ``Roots,'' came up to me and said: Lamar, may I make…”

“once after I made a speech my late friend Alex Haley, the author of ``Roots,'' came up to me and said: Lamar, may I make a suggestion. I said: Of course. He said: When you speak--instead of ``making a speech,'' would you say, ``let me tell you a story,'' and someone might actually listen to what you have to say. So I do have a little speech on the new health care law to make. But before I make a speech, let me tell a story that I think applies to the new health care law. It is a story about two famous and patriotic Tennesseans who went to Texas. The two men are Sam Houston and Davy Crockett. In the early part of the 19th century, Sam Houston was the Governor of Tennessee. He resigned that position because of a problem with his marriage. He went to Arkansas, lived with Indians, and he went to Texas. Congressman Davy Crockett went for a different reason. He got crossways with President Andrew Jackson, who recruited a one-legged veteran of the War of 1812 to run against him and he lost his race for Congress in 1834. He later went to the courthouse steps in Madison County, TN, and said what every defeated candidate has always wanted to say to such voters. He said: I am going to Texas and you can go to hell and he went to Texas. That is historic fact. I am not using bad words here. So we had these two famous Tennesseans, patriotic, brave men, both of whom went to Texas. They had the same goal in mind, the independence of Texas, but they had different tactics.…”