Political Quotes

“I believe the silver lining of all of this is that we are a nation that has come together. It is clear that September 11 has perhaps forever changed this Nation, but perhaps also with an eye toward our communities coming together, with neighbors caring more about one another, with specific outreach that is going on in our communities. In going back to my community and talking to a number of the firefighters and emergency medical people who, in fact, went to New York City as well, the volunteer efforts across the Nation have just been outstanding. I come back to the point, though, of our legislation, which is the one thing the municipal leaders have said to me repeatedly is let us make sure when Congress gets together that it does not forget who, in fact, are their front-line defenders, who are the first responders; and as the case is with homeland defense, any act of terrorism is more likely to have firefighters, police officers, sheriffs, emergency medical teams, allied health professionals, all being the first people to arrive on the scene.”