Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Irving Smolens: a soldier, a father, a husband, an American hero. And I am very proud to call him my friend. Irving Smolens was a World War II veteran who survived D-Day, where he served with the U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division. He came home just short of his 21st birthday in 1945 to a country he loved deeply, and he helped build a community in Melrose, Massachusetts. Irving took his experiences from the darkest moments of our past and advocated for a better, more peaceful world. Up until he left us on Saturday at the age of 90, you could still catch up with Irving at the Melrose schools, where he would recount stories of the Allied invasion in World War II for hundreds of middle schoolers at our assemblies, and he taught thousands in our classrooms. He recently became a chevalier with the French Legion of Honor, and he was a regular at Democratic events and campaigns. He served as president of the Temple Beth Shalom in Melrose, and he was an avid jazz enthusiast and sports fan. He watched every one of the 19 innings of last week's Red Sox-Yankees game. He was quick to pen a letter to the Boston Globe and recently took to blogging in his late eighties and to social media. Not only did he comment on politics, but he helped reconnect veterans' families with their fathers' histories. This past fall, 70 years after Irving stepped onto the beaches of Normandy to fight the Nazis, he returned.…”