Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to speak of a person who took his own life. It was either on Thursday or Friday of last week. It happens far too often. This guy was an Army veteran. His name was Dave Belcher, and I had known Dave for 30 years. Dave worked at White Refrigeration as a salesman. I bought TVs from him in the early nineties. I bought the first front-loading washer from him and a refrigerator. He was just a great guy--just a great guy--but he had a challenge. His challenge was that he served his country, and because of that service to this country, he ended up with something that we talk about on this floor a lot. It is called post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. And because of that PTSD, Dave, not to my knowledge at the time when I first met him, but he was fighting demons, and he fought demons throughout his life. There were issues of depression and guilt that he just couldn't overcome and in the end, probably some paranoia involved, but he ended up taking his own life. I think to myself, back when I first met Dave 30 years ago, how this guy was as normal as anybody you would ever meet. He is not somebody you would look at and say: You know, he has got a bunch of problems. He is not somebody who you could predict, 30 years after the fact, that he would have taken his own life, but that is what happened. It happens far too often. In fact, it happens 22 times a day to our veterans in this country.…”