Political Quotes

“going back to the matter at hand, all of us support the concept of volunteers working to help. In fact, this country could not make it without volunteers. I think of those volunteers in the recent disastrous floods in the Dakotas who worked 16- and 20-hour days to pack sandbags, sometimes to protect homes and property and businesses of people they did not know and probably never would know. They just showed up, volunteered, and did it. I think what happens, sometimes we will get hit with a vicious storm in my part of the world, power lines will come down, electricity will be out, and people gather to volunteer and help. I think of some people I have seen in times when I have had the opportunity to volunteer in what we call our Cleanup Day. Cleanup Day in Vermont was begun by a dear friend and former Governor of Vermont, Dean Davis. This is where thousands of Vermonters all over the State go out at this time of year--the snows are gone, we hope--and we will pick up trash all over the State, beautify our roads, our streams. In fact, I recall when my daughter was the State director, and I went with her and some others. We saw a little piece of metal sticking up in a stream and we decided to pull it, and more of us pulled, and pulled and pulled, and we got a car hooked up and pulled and pulled, and out came a sink--a whole sink. Somebody had tossed it in there. We cleaned it up. I hope that stream was better as a result.”