OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 15, 2010
Location: Washington, DC

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BOCCIERI. President John Kennedy said, ``A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but ideas live on.'' The idea to which many of our troops have fought to preserve and protect for our great Nation is the idea of freedom--the freedom to live in a country where you can be anything you want to be, the freedom to do anything you want to do, and the freedom to go anyplace you want to go.

Today, our troops are over in Iraq and Afghanistan so that the people of those nations can have even a little of what we take for granted. The mark of a great country is that men and women, when called, will leave everything behind, sacrifice everything for someone, something, someplace they consider greater than themselves.

While the cause of such a noble idea as freedom lives on and our troops sacrifice daily on foreign lands, we must maintain constant vigilance for life here at home. The issue before us today is one of which the very soldiers who fight to spread the idea of freedom to countries that don't know it find an ever-fleeting policy that denies them the opportunity to be who they want to be and the freedom to do what they want to do.

As one who spent 17 years in the military, flying wounded and fallen soldiers out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the finest men and women have served our Nation, I find it regrettable that, for some, the freedom that they're fighting for is not evenly applied.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

Mrs. DAVIS of California. I yield the gentleman 10 additional seconds.

Mr. BOCCIERI. As Admiral Mullen has said, it is troubling that men and women from our country have to lie about who they are to defend the truth and freedom of our war.

The courts have spoken. The military leadership have spoken. Our military has spoken. It is time for Congress to speak that, when you take an oath to die for our freedom, it matters not who you love at home but, more importantly, that you love our country.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward