Political Quotes

“toward the end of World War II, Norman Rockwell created a cover for the Saturday Evening Post titled ``Homecoming GI.'' It is a picture of a soldier returning from war. He has a duffle bag clutched in his left hand. He is looking up at the back of a brick building with laundry hanging from the back porch. A woman in an apron sees him with outstretched arms, and a young child races down the stairs. Everyone sees that soldier--the neighbors' kids, the man fixing the roof, faces from another window--and everyone welcomes that soldier who has come home from war. That is what our Nation did for the millions of servicemembers who returned from the Atlantic and the Pacific. We watched them come home in waves. Some were just as strong as their first day in battle; others limped. We saw them crowd Times Square. We saw them walk down Main Street and sit on stoops. My grandfather, who fought in Patton's army, would often speak about this time as America at its finest. That homecoming didn't just happen; we were ready for it. Long before the beaches of Normandy were stormed and the last battle was fought, in 1943 President Roosevelt said: Among many other things, we are, today, laying plans for the return to civilian life of our gallant men and women in the armed services. They must not be demobilized into an environment of inflation and unemployment, to a place on a bread line, or on a corner selling apples.…”