Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to discuss health care this evening. But before I get to health care, I was notified early this afternoon that a unique, iconic American had died today; Sargent Shriver is no longer with us. This individual has had an impact on America and the world around us that will last for centuries. He literally created the United States Peace Corps. The idea was developed by him and his brother-in-law, JFK, and put into effect in the first year of the Jack Kennedy administration. Thousands, indeed over nearly 200,000 Americans, have joined the Peace Corps in the ensuing years. For my wife and I, it changed our life; it changed the path upon which we have traveled. We were the third iteration of the Peace Corps back in the 1960s. We were sent to Ethiopia. We served in a village out in the boondocks of southwestern Ethiopia, and it put in place in our lives the vision that we could and should continue to serve. We are not alone. Thousands upon thousands of Americans, those that were in the Peace Corps and those that were affected by the Peace Corps here in this Nation, found that same mission of being a life of service. In the 1990s, Sargent Shriver returned once again to assist the Peace Corps as the Clinton administration undertook the rebuilding and expansion of the Peace Corps.…”