Political Quotes

“I am, as you know, concluding my first year in the U.S. Senate. Within a few days, we may be able to go home, and the sooner the better. As I reflect on my first year, I think back on one particular issue, which I didn't anticipate being of great importance and now has turned out to be of major importance on my legislative agenda. I was appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee and, as a result of that appointment, I decided to really focus on the issue of crime, particularly juvenile crime, in the United States. This past year, I made my visits back to Illinois coincide with an effort to study the problem of juvenile crime. During the course of 1997, I visited jails and prisons, detention centers, have met with judges and law enforcement officials, have been to drug rehab facilities, have been to many, many schools in the State of Illinois, have met with young people and their parents, and I have tried as best I could to come to grips with some of the problems that we have in this Nation as it relates to crime. I find it very curious to consider the following: The United States has one of the strongest economies in the world. I daresay that you could not travel across the world and find another country so widely admired as the United States. No matter where you go, people talk about us--the way we live, our music, our art, our culture, our economy. We should take great pride in that.…”