On the recordJune 18, 2014
Madam President, I appreciate the opportunity to come to the Senate to speak about the situation in Iraq. A moment ago I was joined by some very close friends from South Florida, including the former mayor of West Miami, and now the chair of the county commission in Miami-Dade County, Rebecca Sosa. She actually got me started in politics. When she was mayor of West Miami, I told her I was interested in public service. We walked door to door in the small city called West Miami which has 5,000 residents. She taught me how to campaign one on one with real people and their real lives. Now I return home every weekend--when we are done here and with my work throughout the State--to the same community that I still live in, and increasingly people there are asking me about the situation in Iraq. The question I get from many people is--and I want to be blunt about how they say it--I understand this is a problem, but why is it our business? Why do we care about what is happening in another country when it seems to be a fight among themselves? That is a very legitimate question. I know Americans are watching the issues that are happening abroad, and they ask themselves: Why does America need to be the world's policeman? I want to take a few moments to explain why this matters--why it matters to people not just in the Middle East but even people in the small city of West Miami where I still live.…





