Political Quotes

“Thursday and Friday of next week, I plan to visit my alma mater, the United States Military Academy at West Point. I hope to spend time with the Department of Social Sciences and thank them for their service to our country and for their current job of training our next generation of warriors. I am sure that many of the faculty also mentor individual cadets. During my era, we called it sponsoring. This is a critical part of the job that I want to continue to encourage them to do. You see, I am headed back to West Point to attend the burial of my sponsor, Colonel Witter. I met the Witter family during my first free Sunday morning of Beast Barracks. We met at the Lutheran service in the Old Cadet Chapel in the cemetery. Colonel Witter and his wife, Mary Ellen, and children, Nanette, Dorinda, and Mathew, welcomed me into their home. They provided a safe haven away from the constant scrutiny of the upper class. They provided a full meal now and then when full meals during my era as a plebe were not always assured. Having been raised in a large family, they provided a second family, a younger brother that I never had and two younger sisters that I already had plenty of. As in any family, sometimes I was helpful and sometimes maybe a burden. The Witter family was always there for me, in good times and bad. Whether I was breaking the porch swing or kitchen chairs, seriously burning Mathew, or spending the night when I was told not to, I was also forgiven.…”