Political Quotes

“Madam President, it is my honor to pay tribute today to a fellow Tennessean who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. On August 26, 2021, at approximately 9:30 am Eastern Standard Time, an ISIS-K terrorist murdered 13 American servicemembers in a suicide attack on the Abbey Gate leading into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Among the fallen was Corryton native SSG Ryan Knauss. Ryan served with the Army's 9th Battalion, 8th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne), which put him directly in the heart of Afghan communities. His job was to build relationships with the people he met there, and by all accounts, he succeeded with uncommon skill, empathy, and compassion. It was dangerous work, but Ryan understood its importance. As his widow Alena recently told a Knoxville newspaper, ``When he spoke of the people of Afghanistan, all he saw were people that needed help. They were below no one in his eyes, not even Americans. He told me that all he saw were people of a different culture who deserved to be OK.'' When the time came for the Army to support evacuations at the airport, Ryan volunteered for the mission. He knew that, by doing this, he would be putting himself in danger; but when he looked at the chaos unfolding there, all he saw were the thousands of women and children forced into the line of fire by the persistent, terrifying evil that was seizing control of Kabul. And so he went and faithfully executed his duty.…”