Political Quotes

“it is my pleasure to reflect for a moment this morning about the importance of our being able to provide livable communities for Americans. A lot of what we deal with on the floor of the House of Representatives at times seems a little obscure to citizens back home, but really what they care about is to make sure that their families are safe when they go out the door in the morning to go to school. They want those families to be healthy, they want them to be economically secure. I am particularly concerned about that element of safety, Mr. Speaker. I have been witnessing events around the country of late that give me pause. In the Pacific Northwest this last November, we had a tragedy where a bus driver was shot and the bus careened through the guardrail, plunging down below into an apartment house. Thirty passengers were injured. We had a situation just a couple of weeks ago in San Diego where a bus driver was attacked, was raped and we are still trying to solve that situation. Last year in Wisconsin we had a situation where a bus passenger boarded and splashed gasoline around and seriously burned several passengers. The point of this litany here is not that transit is inherently dangerous. In fact it is not. The statistics are clear that people are far safer taking mass transit than they are driving a car when you look at the accidents, drunk driving, drive-by shootings and carjackings.”