Political Quotes

“I think I hear what the gentleman is saying. The gentleman is saying, as I appreciate it, that we as public officials who are looked upon on a day-to-day basis for leadership, be it in our own districts or be it throughout the country, we have to be, first of all, more tolerant of each other, and we must also realize that we have to lead by example and try to talk about concentrating more on those things that bring us together than to put so much emphasis on those things that may divide us. I think the gentleman is correct. Many times, all too often people in public life, people who run for office use issues as a wedge rather than a magnet to bring people together, but a wedge to divide. I do not know if this is what we get, the church-burning is a result of what we get as a result of dividing and not healing and bringing people together. I do not know if that is the reason or not. But I do think the gentleman certainly makes a very compelling argument in that respect. It goes to show you that people do in fact, if that is one of the by-products of division in this Congress, division in government, if one of the by-products is somebody going to go put a match to a church, then we have to be very careful in terms of how we lead and govern.”