Paul Coverdell: “at another time, I had the distinct honor to serve a former President as Director of the U.S. Peace Corps. In that…”

“at another time, I had the distinct honor to serve a former President as Director of the U.S. Peace Corps. In that capacity, and due to the time of the watch, I had the opportunity to see the faces of people who had never been free or who had not been free for so long they could not remember it. It was the time when the wall was coming down and barbed wire was being clipped, and we were among the first Americans over the wall and under the wire. The faces of those people are forever riveted in my mind. The consciousness of what the lack of freedom does to people has become a study of mine ever since. People's behavior is greatly affected by the condition of their freedom. Then, after the Peace Corps, I had the opportunity to come to the U.S. Senate and look at America through the unique window this institution provides. In comparing the two experiences, I came to believe that the genesis of all American glory is that we have been a free people, that everything we are to ourselves and to the world is rooted in the fact that we have been free.”