Political Quotes

“Kentucky writer and farmer Wendell Berry wrote that: Though I would just as soon get along without it, a humbling awareness of the complexity of moral issues is said to be a good thing. If such an awareness is, in fact good-- and if I, in fact, have it--I have tobacco to thank for it. Like Berry, any awareness I have of moral complexities is also thanks to tobacco. Now I know there are some people who don't think there is anything at all complex about the tobacco issue. For them it is simply money versus morality. For them there is no family business, there is no tradition, there is no farmer. And perhaps most disturbing--there is no appetite for reason. That is something that we seem to be in short supply of here, from those who are determined to regulate an industry out of business to those who would rather play politics than protect our farmers. These opportunists are thinking only of themselves and today, rather than all of us and tomorrow. And in the process, teenagers keep smoking, farmers fret about their futures, and the litigation continues. I will admit that when it comes to Kentucky, I can be as hard as a bull's head. But, on the issue of teen smoking, I have been as reasonable as they come. I am one of the biggest defenders of tobacco, yet 1 year ago I, Wendell Ford, introduced legislation putting severe restrictions on the tobacco industry in an effort to reach a reasonable solution to the problem of teen smoking.”