Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman. I brought with me today a picture of Master Sergeant Abraham. Now, I never knew him when he looked like this. I knew him when he was much older. I have got to tell you that to know Master Sergeant Abraham, you would never have known what he had gone through in his life because all of these folks from that time period just did what they had to do. When you ask them, ``Why did you do it?'' they said, ``It wasn't an option. It wasn't an option. We had to do it.'' There is just certain times in our history that people rise up and they do things that are incredible, ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Just being around Mr. Abraham for a long time--I never called him Abie, by the way. I did not call him Abie. I always called him sergeant or Mr. Abraham--I was just always so impressed with him. It is such an honor and a privilege to be able to stand here in the people's House to talk about a true American hero, somebody who was not just a patriot, but was compassionate, somebody who never stopped serving his country in so many different ways. When I first read ``The Ghost of Bataan,'' I went back and I talked to Mr. Abraham. I said: You never told me about these things. He said: Oh, don't worry about that. Those were just things we had to do.…”