Political Quotes

“I would like to contrast it to an early experience I had in life. In the winter of 1945, the war was raging in Europe--although it ended in May, it was still going on, as was the war in the Pacific. Like everybody else on my block, all students who were 17 and 18, we all joined the military. I don't claim to have a military career of any great consequence, but I will never forget the first night. We had been on a small train that stopped in stations all across the east coast picking up a dozen or two 17- and 18-year-olds on the train. It was cold as the dickens, and the train was chugging its way up to the Great Lakes. We arrived at 2 or 3 in the morning. We were tired, cold, and huddled into a great big room. A petty officer, who was quite rotund, got up on a little platform and screamed at us, 'All you guys who can't read and write raise your hands.' I had the benefit of a wonderful education in high school. I almost flipped out. I did not realize, really, that many people didn't have the basic skills that I had been given.”