Joe Cunningham: “one of my favorite speakers is a guy named Will Rogers. First of all, he tells stories and he relates to people. And my…”

“one of my favorite speakers is a guy named Will Rogers. First of all, he tells stories and he relates to people. And my subject tonight is the readiness, the national security of this great country. We just finished a hearing in San Diego headed up by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bateman). Our Republican and Democrat colleagues, I was very, very proud, they listened. They watched. And they unanimously contended that the readiness state of our armed forces in this country is at a critical state. I think it best relates, as my friend Will Rogers used to relate the stories, and it tells about a case of a gentleman that was in an accident and he was banged up. His horse was killed. His dog was killed. And the insurance agent came to the gentleman and said, Well, is it true the day of your accident you told the police officer that it was the best day of your life and that you had never felt better? And the gentleman looked at him and said, Yes, this is right. I did that. He said, But you had broken legs and broken arms. He said, Yes, but I still said that I never felt better. He said, Can you explain? He said, Well, my horse had broken legs and the policeman took out his revolver and he shot the horse. My dog was near death, and he reached over and shot the dog and the police officer looked at me and said, how do you feel? And of course, I replied I never felt better in my life, even though I had broken legs and arms.”