Political Quotes

“I rise today to honor Manchester's John Mehrmann, New Hampshire's winner of the VFW Voice of Democracy Scholarship Contest. This contest is held each year to give high school students the opportunity to voice their opinion on their responsibility to our country. The following is Mr. Mehrmann's essay, which I found both compelling and profound, and which is why I want to read it on the floor of the United States Congress. ``We were just kids. All our lives, everything was perfect; everything worked. Everything was planned. We went to school. We came home. We slept. And somewhere along the road of our lives, we would graduate from school. After graduating from school, we would go to a new school, we would come home, and we would sleep. There was nothing to fear; there would always be food in the fridge and gas in the car. Every time we flicked the light switch, there would be light. ``Then something happened. Suddenly something, somehow, someway, somewhere shattered. As the dust settled and the magnitude of what we had lost became clear, it wasn't the death of an age for us, and it wasn't the death of jokes. But as we walked across the street or through the halls or drove our cars, something was different. The world was smaller that day. And all the faces, you with your expensive car, or you who always had something important to say, they all looked so much alike. They didn't all have the same hair color or the number of freckles.…”