Political Quotes

“I rise this evening to speak on a subject that, with the groundswell of activism, has once again captured national attention--and rightfully so. Many years ago, I was a young naval flight officer stationed at a mock field naval air station in the Bay area out in California, preparing for the first of what would be three tours of duty in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. I joined there with tens of thousands of people one day to celebrate our country's first-ever Earth Day. I will never forget it. This was back when polluters dumped waste into our waterways with impunity. Garbage littered our shores, and too many rivers oozed instead of flowed. One of them was in Cleveland, OH. The Cuyahoga River, north of where I went to school at Ohio State, actually caught on fire. Factories spewed toxic fumes, and acid rain fell from the sky. The urgency was clear then, and it is even clearer today. That very first Earth Day was a transformative experience for me, and it will serve as an inspiration for me for the rest of my life. As I look at what is happening across our country today, I see the movement for bold and transformative action to save our planet. I see the faces of those who were there with me that day in Golden Gate State Park.…”