On the recordMarch 8, 2011
I appreciate being here to participate in the Constitution Caucus's comments on our Constitution. We labor under sometimes, basically all times, the misguided idea that we're the smartest people that ever walked the face of the Earth, that no new ideas are created except through us. Sometimes it's helpful to look back at some of the things folks who have gone before us have said to help us reflect on those and see how they apply to today's circumstances. A couple of those things, one is from a speech that Robert Kennedy made on the Day of Affirmation address that he gave in South Africa back in 1966. And while much of what he talked about, the revolution of youth and the civil rights movement and other things, are not germane to what we're talking about tonight, there is a section that is particularly relevant to this conversation, and I would like to read into the Record his comments in some of those early paragraphs. He started off by saying: "We stand here in the name of freedom." "Freedom" is that wonderful word that conjures up inside of all of us those kinds of feelings that are unique to just certain words. "Liberty" is another word that does that, that has that kind of visceral experience inside each one of us. It's different but nonetheless inspiring almost every single time you hear that.
