Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to take a moment to thank a man that some in my hometown of East St. Louis call a saint and others call ``Reverend Joe'' although he is not a minister. Joe Hubbard is the man you call in East St. Louis when you need help and have nowhere else to turn. When Joe was born his parents wanted to name him Raymond Lee. But the Irish priest who baptized him said he should have a good Irish name and so declared him Joseph Patrick, after St. Joseph the Worker. It turned out to be a fitting choice because Joe Hubbard has spent nearly his entire life doing the Lord's work. He started 50 years ago as a volunteer with the St. Vincent DePaul Society in East St. Louis. Joe was 20 years old back then. He was working as a bookkeeper for the East Side Levee and Sanitary District to help support his widowed mother, but his real joy was helping the poor. Every minute that Joe wasn't working, he was volunteering with St. Vincent DePaul. After a while Joe quit his job to volunteer full-time to help the people he calls ``God's broken people,'' the poor, the homeless and the friendless of East St. Louis. He did this for a decade. In 1972, about a dozen priests, nuns and lay leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville drafted a petition that was later signed by every priest then serving East St. Louis. The petition asked the bishop of the diocese to create a small salary for Joe so that he could continue his good works under the auspices of the Catholic Church.…”