Political Quotes

“I rise today to commemorate a statesman and a mentor, Senator Mark O. Hatfield. He took many roles: dedicated public servant, conscientious man of faith, and pioneer for new development in the West. He was born in 1922 in Dallas, OR, a small town not far from our capital, Salem, to a family of modest means. His father was a blacksmith and his mother was a schoolteacher. When he was young, his family then actually moved to the State capital, which gave him a chance, as a teenager, to work as a guide in the State capitol building and to imagine returning one day as a public leader. He proceeded to study at Willamette University in Salem. During his freshman year, events took a dramatic turn with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Senator Hatfield joined the Reserves and accelerated his studies, so he completed his degree in 1943 and joined the Navy. He proceeded as a naval officer and fought in Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and he saw the devastating aftermath of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, an imprint that, along with his State, caused him to struggle with the appropriate and moral use of force throughout his life in public service. In his own words: In the war's immediate aftermath, one vivid experience made the profoundest impression on me. I was with a Navy contingent who were among the first Americans to enter Hiroshima after the atomic bomb had been dropped.…”