Charles Rangel: “I have never felt more proud of my colleague from New York, for the great leadership that he has provided, since his…”

“I have never felt more proud of my colleague from New York, for the great leadership that he has provided, since his arrival in this august body. This is such a great country, and I love it so much. I was raised in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, and when I graduated from law school, having been the only one in my family having gone to college, I think my mother said, ``Thank you, Jesus,'' and I said something like, ``Thanks for the Constitution, and thanks for being born in America.'' Like anything else you love, if there is an illness, if there is a problem, you would want to know what can you do to cure it. How can you make it all that our country can be? How can we say that we have a cancer that, until we recognize that we do, then we don't really love the country? How can we be able to say that White and Black in this country are equal and that those who work hard and live by the rules have the same opportunities as each other, when we know that we have this cancer that sometimes we are able to make the country do a lot better than it has since our people were the only ones who were actually brought here in chains?…”