Political Quotes

“Mr. President, what if I came to the floor today and said I have a new law I want to introduce, and here is what it says: If you stop motorists across America, anywhere across America--for speeding, reckless driving, driving under the influence--you can not only arrest that motorist, you can arrest the child in the backseat. You can tell that child in the backseat, maybe 2 years old or 5 years old, you have to pay a price because your parent broke the law. People would laugh me out of the Senate Chamber. That is not right. That is not the way we handle justice in America. You do not impose a penalty on children because of the wrongdoing of their parents. Keep that in mind for a moment because I want to tell you a story, a story that goes back 10 years in Chicago, IL, when a Korean-American woman called my office in Chicago and said, I have a problem. Actually, I have a good thing to tell you, she said. My daughter, who is graduating from high school, is an accomplished concert pianist. She has gone through the Merit Music Program in Chicago, a wonderful program that allows kids--not from the wealthy families but kids from families of lower income groups--a chance to own musical instruments or take musical lessons and see if they thrive--and they do; 100 percent of them go to college. Her daughter was one of them, a concert pianist graduating from high school, and her mom said: She has been accepted at the Julliard School of Music in New York. We cannot believe it.…”