Political Quotes

“Madam President, I want to tell my colleagues a story about Charlene Dill. On March 21 Charlene Dill was supposed to bring her three children over to the South Orlando home of her best friend Kathleen. The two friends had cultivated a really close relationship since 2008. They shared every resource they had from debit card pins to transportation to babysitting to house keys. They helped one another out. They essentially had become each other's safety net. As Kathleen described it, they hustled. They picked up short-term work. They went to every event they could get free tickets to for their kids. They lived the high life on the lowdown. They cleaned houses for friends just so they could afford the daily necessities of life. They were the quintessential working poor, and they existed in the shadows of this economic recovery that is yet to reach a lot of average people out there. On March 21, when Dill never showed up with her three kids, who often came over to play with Kathleen's 9-year-old daughter, Kathleen was surprised she didn't even get a phone call from her friend Charlene. She shot her a text message--something along the lines of ``thanks for ditching me''--without knowing what had really happened. Charlene, who was estranged from her husband, had been raising her 3 children alone--ages, 3, 7, and 9. She had picked up another odd job to try to pay the bills. She was selling vacuums on commission for Rainbow Vacuums.…”