Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize one of the most innovative jazz musicians of all time, the legendary Thelonious Monk. This legend, Mr. Speaker, was born in my congressional district in the State of North Carolina, and would have turned 100 years old today. Thelonious Sphere Monk was the second of three children born to Thelonious, Sr., and Barbara Monk on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Though Monk and his family left Rocky Mount for New York City when Thelonious was a child, scholars and fellow musicians say Monk's North Carolina roots had an important influence on the man and his music. Writer Sam Stephenson credited Thelonious Monk's Carolina roots in the ``Oxford American,'' writing that Rocky Mount's flourishing tobacco culture and rail yard was one of the largest in all of the South the year Monk was born. Stephenson speculated those railways may have inspired Monk's composition ``Little Rootie Tootie,'' which features train whistle sounds. Mr. Speaker, incidentally, the city of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, is divided between two counties, Nash County and Edgecombe County. The railroad in that community is the dividing line. Every day, the CSX and Amtrak trains come through that community. They have been doing that for a very long time. Those train tracks were first established in 1855, even before the Civil War. It was established as the Wilmington to Weldon Railroad.…”