Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time. I do have some prepared remarks here, but don't tell my staff that I'm not going to use them. I want to speak just a little bit about what I just heard and what I think some of our challenges are in this great country of ours. And it is a great country. It does not need to be made great again. Our problem is making this greatness accessible and affordable for all of its citizens. I think one of the ways that we do that is to recognize that we have a shared history in this country, but it is a history that is spotted with a lot of inequities, inequalities, and a lot of things that we ought to be about the business of working to try and level off the so- called playing field. One of those, I think, is really about the ability to communicate. When we talk about Juneteenth, I often equate the history of Juneteenth with our country's inability to communicate, because the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, was to be effective January 1, 1863, freeing all the slaves in the Confederate States not under Union control. Now, when that happened, there was a big meeting down on the banks of a river in Beaufort County, South Carolina, near Port Royal, and 4,000 slaves came to listen to General Saxton read the Emancipation Proclamation. On that day they were free. However, it was June 19, 1865, 2\1/2\ years later before it was communicated to those who were enslaved in Texas.…”