Political Quotes

“I rise today on Human Rights Day. Now, there are a plethora of days in this Nation known for various causes, for issues, and for historical occurrences. Human Rights Day is fundamentally American. The rights of human beings are the reason this Nation was founded and the motivation for the war that was fought to make us free. Human Rights Day is about advancing equality, and the U.S. Constitution as it has expanded over the years to include new groups of people and strike down barriers of race, gender, ethnic background, and national origin. It is about the progress of human rights and equality, the noblest of causes for this Nation. It is about what brings us together as Americans, the fight for freedom, the search for equality and justice. I want to talk about three specific ways we can advance the cause of human rights in this Chamber, in this session, through measures that are now before us. The first concerns human trafficking. I have been particularly interested in the rampant human trafficking problems on American military bases abroad in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Victims are recruited from developing countries like Bangladesh and the Philippines. They are charged exorbitant, illegal fees to travel to their worksites, often misled about where they are going, what their salaries will be, and what their living conditions will be like.…”