Political Quotes

“I appreciate my friend from Utah for yielding. I'm glad we could keep this photograph up. Here is how I got involved and engaged in this. It's very personal. Actually, the man who took this photograph, David de Young, is a constituent and a friend of mine back from west Michigan. He was actually part of a project that went out to try to then photograph all of the remaining World War I survivors. He traveled to Europe, to Australia, and then had met Frank Buckles along the way and had gotten to know him very well. Unfortunately, I was not able to meet him in person, but I attended his funeral in Arlington, where we said good-bye as a Nation. I can tell you that it was his desire--Frank's desire--and David's desire, his family's desire, my desire, and I think now, finally, this body's desire to properly say thank you. The other reason this is very personal and very important to me is that I get to talk about a man named Bill Huizenga--not I, Bill Huizenga, but my grandfather, Bill Huizenga--who happened to fight in World War I. He was part of a group called the Polar Bears. They were men who were chosen from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan because they figured they'd be used to the cold, so they sent them all the way up around Norway to Archangel, Russia, to fight in an undeclared portion of World War I. In fact, Grandpa Bill was there after Armistice Day and where British, Canadian, and American troops remained well into the spring of that following year after Armistice.…”