Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we have heard a lot about the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, and on this session after Veterans Day I wish to talk about another 1 percent, the 1 percent who have volunteered to defend us. I want to say a few words about veterans in earlier wars. Thirty years ago, thousands of veterans of the Vietnam war came home. They gave themselves a homecoming parade that they deserved but almost none had ever received. The Presiding Officer here from Virginia, I know as a Senator and as an ace Vietnam veteran, knows of what I speak. With wounded veterans in wheelchairs leading the parade, they marched up Constitution Avenue to dedicate the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial, on whose polished granite walls were etched the names of nearly 58,000 dead and missing comrades-in-arms. Here is a photograph that was taken that day. This is Joseph Ambrose of Joliet, IL. Mr. Ambrose was 86 years old then. He is wearing the same uniform he wore as a 19-year-old U.S. Army private in France in World War I. In his arms he carries a flag, the flag that covered the coffin of his son who gave his life for our country in Korea. Joseph Ambrose wore his old Army ``doughboy'' uniform and carried his son's flag often to Veterans Day parades and VFW conventions.…”