Political Quotes

Patrick Kennedy: “Mr. Chairman, ultimately this is a political football. The Solomon amendment is meant to kill this bill. To think that…”

On the recordMarch 4, 1998
Mr. Chairman, ultimately this is a political football. The Solomon amendment is meant to kill this bill. To think that we are asking the Puerto Rican people to be forced to speak English. I would ask the gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon), how often did we ask the 200,000 Puerto Ricans who served in our Nation's military and were putting their lives on the line in defense of this liberty how well they spoke English? And why is it right for us now to say they have to speak English? When they were good enough to die for this country, they were good enough to serve for this country, now we are going to impose the English language on them, when it was never the case when it happened to come to them serving in our Nation's military.
Said by
Patrick Kennedy
Rhode Island
Source
govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the implications of the Solomon amendment on Puerto Rican language rights.

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