Political Quotes

“It is my privilege to be recognized to address you here on the floor of the House of Representatives. I rise to honor, this week, to celebrate what actually took place on Monday, the 28th of October, Oxi Day, the 79th anniversary. I wanted to address this because of the strong spirit of the Greek people, who rose up against the Axis Powers 79 years ago this week when a representative of Hitler's Axis Powers, who happened to be the minister from the Italians, arrived at the residence of the Greek leader Metaxas and demanded that they surrender Greece to the Italians and the Axis forces. There, Metaxas looked him in the eye and said, boldly and strongly, ``Oxi,'' which is Greek for ``no.'' That is the most resounding ``no'' that I know of in history, Mr. Speaker. That resounding ``no'' inspired the Greek people. Within hours, the Italians and the Axis forces had started their invasion of Greece, and they were overconfident. They thought they would waltz in because they had all kinds of military firepower, but what they underestimated was the tenacity of the Greek fighters, their knowledge of the terrain, and defending their own soil. They were defeated, and the Greeks chased the Italians back to Italy, which forced, then, Adolf Hitler to divert five divisions down through Greece and down through the Balkans into Greece to put down the--they called it a revolution or a resurrection.…”