Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, abstinence education. With all due respect to the good intentions of the author of the amendment, as far as this amendment and the priority-setting that produced this amendment on the floor of Congress today, I think the whole matter is a true embarrassment. The Pentagon held a memorial service this morning. It had a memorial service for the men and women that we lost on September 11. Their loved ones were not killed because of inadequate abstinence education; they were killed because of major security breaches in our airports, and it is high time that this Congress do something about it. Across our country, millions of Americans have honored the victims of September 11 with a moment of silence. Well, this House has acted with more than a moment; it has had a month of silence and inaction on the security issue that lies at the heart of this tragedy. We can talk about the pros and cons of abstinence education all night long, and I guess some would like to do that, but when are we going to talk about effective measures to ensure abstinence for terrorism? I think that it is long past time to stop wasting our time talking about safe sex and start talking about safe flight. In the 30 days that have now passed since four airplanes were hijacked and crashed, the Congress has failed utterly to provide for airline security. This inaction borders on indifference, and it is a disgrace.”